History Main / ItIsPronouncedTroPay

* From ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', Goodwin is supposed to be pronounced as "Gohd-win", causing fan translators to [[SpellMyNameWithAnS spell it as "Godwin"]] which sounds similar, but Goodwin's name has a long O, not a short O. This is LostInTranslation when the official dubs pronounce his name as "Gud-win", pronouncing the double O as a U.

NOTE: Though "Trope" isn't pronounced that way, even in French, the city Saint Tropez actually is pronounced like that.

* The name [=DiBiase=] (as in both generations of WWF wrestlers named "Wrestling/TedDiBiase") is always pronounced "dee bee-yah-see" by announcers and commentators (which raises the question of just why the "i" and the "e" are being pronounced exactly the same way). It actually should be pronounced "dee bee-yah-''seh''", but don't expect anyone not a stickler for pronunciation of the Italian language to ever do so.

[[folder:Real Life -- People]]
* At the celebrity roast of Creator/WilliamShatner, Creator/GeorgeTakei introduced himself to the guest of honor with the following line: "Hello, Bill. My name is George Takei (TAH-kaye), as in rhymes with toupee (TOO-pay), and not, as you have insisted on pronouncing it for the last forty years, tak-EYE!" (The "EYE" being drawn out in mocking reference to Kirk's "[[BigWordShout KHAAAANNN!!! KHAAAAAANNN!!!]]" line is just toupee-shaped icing on the cake at that point).
* Allegedly actress Creator/JeanHarlow was at dinner with Margot Asquith (widow of a former UK Prime Minister) and kept pronouncing her name with the "t". Eventually Asquith told her "No, Jean, the 'T' is silent, [[StealthPun like in 'Harlow']]".
* In England...
** The surname Berkley is pronounced B'''ar'''kley.
** Similarly, Derby is "Darby" (surname and [[strike: county]] city. The county is Derbyshire (DAR-bee-shur)). And the word 'clerk' is "clark". (In case you're wondering, this is because of a massive change in how we pronounced vowels from the 13th to 18th centuries.)
** The surname "Featherstonhaugh" and the location from which the name derives is pronounced "FAN-shaw".
** And "Berkshire" is pronounced "Bark-shire". But the abbreviated form "berk" (rhyming slang: berk = Berkshire Hunt = cunt; usage: insult) is still pronounced "berk", not "bark".
*** Actually, it's pronounced "Burk", like Americans pronounce "Derp" as "Durp".
*** The rhyming slang takes its name from the Berkeley Hunt. Which is, of course, pronounced "BARK-lee", as is the town where the hunt is actually based.
** No one is quite sure how to pronounce the name "Wriothesley", the surname of the former Earls of Southampton. Interpretations include: "ROTTS-lee", "RYE-es-lee", "Wri-oth-es-ley", and the almost certainly incorrect "Risley".
** Gloucestershire is pronounced "GLOSS-TER-SHIRE".
* Possible case: Creator/NicolasCage pronounces his son [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kal-El's]] name as ka-LELL, despite the hyphen making the correct pronunciation perfectly obvious. More likely he simply pronounces it the same way as Brando did in ''Superman''.
* Ralph as "Rafe" is the old traditional British pronunciation, still found in individuals like Ralph Fiennes and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
* Henry ("Harry", which is now considered a nickname) and Agnes ("ANN-iss"), though the latter is "AG-niss" in the States.
* Scottish actor Gerard (JAYR-id) Butler played King Leonidas in ''Film/ThreeHundred'', whereas {{Joisey}}-born Gerard (juh-RAWRD) Way is the lead singer of Music/MyChemicalRomance.
* The Welsh girls' name Siân is pronounced "shahn". Outside the UK, many people will pronounce it how it's spelt.
* John Boehner, who retired from his post as Speaker of the (U.S.) House in 2015. His last name is pronounced BAY-ner, not [[UnfortunateNames "boner"]]. Anyone trying to search [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] for "John Bayner" will get redirected to the correct page.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner Jared Lee Loughner's]] last name is pronounced LOFF-ner, not "{{loner|sAreFreaks}}". Same for actor [[Series/HawaiiFive0 Alex]] [[Series/{{Moonlight}} O'Loughlin]].
* After winning the Heisman Trophy, Tony Dorsett announced that his last name should be pronounced "Dor-SETT" rather than "DOR-set". The next year, Earl Campbell won the award and joked that his last name was "Cam-BELL".
** In his senior season, Joe Theismann (originally pronounced THEES-man) changed the pronunciation of his name so that it'd rhyme with Heisman, thinking he'd get more votes that way. He failed; Jim Plunkett won that year.
* Former Rice halfback Dicky Moegle later on changed the spelling of his last name to Maegle to look the way it's pronounced, since many people said it as "MOH-gle".
* The printing method known as Giclee is pronounced "Zhee-clay". Go figure.
** Because it's correctly spelt ''giclée'' and pronounced as such. It was taken from the French verb, "gicler" meaning "to squirt, spurt or spray".
* Remember... Guy Forget? (Ghee FOR-zhay)
** Related, given there are a lot of French Canadians in hockey, goalie Guy Hebert is American but opted to pronounce his name like someone from Quebec would (Ghee He-behr).
* Mike Krzyzewski, coach of the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team. Apparently, "Krzyzewski" is pronounced "Sheshefski".[[note]]Which is an ''extremely'' loose approximation of the actual Polish pronunciation.[[/note]]
* Many non-Polish citizens have trouble pronouncing the surname "Szczepaniak", opting instead to write it as "Stepaniak" and pronounce it as "Steh-paw-nic".
* The last name of NHL player Miroslav Satan? Try sha-TAHN.
** Pronounced as in his native Slovak, in which the name is written Šatan (note the difference in the first letter).
* Like Slovak, Czech also has "S" and "Š" in its alphabet, and the Czech Republic has its share of NHL players who have the same issue. Just to name two, Dominik Hasek's last name is HAH-shek (native form Hašek) and Patrik Elias' is ELL-ee-ahsh (native form Eliáš).
* Dallas Mavericks guard Monta Ellis' first name is pronounced "MON-tay."
* The name Danielle is pronounced dan-YELL... unless you're Minnesota Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter (yes, a man; after all, Daniel in Italian is Daniele). In his case, it's duh-NEEL.
* Creator/KirstenDunst is pronounced KEER-stuhn, not KUR-stuhn. This is the German and Scandinavian pronunciation of the name, not completely surprising as her father is German and her mother is of German-Swedish extraction. (However, she apparently does not go so far as to insist on her surname being given the proper German pronunciation, which would be more like "doonst").
* Music/LouisArmstrong disliked being called "Louie", as he saw the nickname demeaning and dismissive of his achievements and talents. Even today, the pronunciation of his first name is SeriousBusiness to jazz aficionados.
* While most people say "Carnegie" with the first syllable emphasized, "CAR-neh-gee", Andrew Carnegie himself pronounced his last name with the stress on the second syllable, i.e. "Car-NAY-gee". In Pittsburgh, it and the many things with his name have always been pronounced Carnegie's way, to the extent of re-recording a recent bus announcement.
* Thandie Newton's first name is pronounced "Tandy", like the computer.
* One of Oxford's most famous colleges is 'Magdalen'. However, it is not pronounced as it's spelt, it's pronounced 'maudlin'. Same in Cambridge.
* Halley's Comet. "Hay-lees" used to be a common mispronunciation; it's now usually pronounced "Hah-lees", but if you're following the man it's named after, it should be pronounced "Haw-lees".[[note]]Maybe. Nobody is quite sure exactly how Edmond himself pronounced his last name; orthography was not yet fully standardized in the 17th century, and contemporary spellings included Hailey, Hayley, Haly, Hawly, and Hawley in addition to the now-standard Halley.[[/note]]
* Also, Walter Raleigh. It's "Raw-lee", not "Rah-lee".
* Creator/CharlizeTheron has stated in interviews that she finds it amusing that people pronounce her last name in the media as "tha-rone" to make it sound fancy, saying that it's simply pronounced "thair-in". The sound of it is actually quite different and almost impossible to transcribe even phonetically in English. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3TTi_gAS5c]]
* ''Arab'' is supposed to be pronounced "Air-rib," not "AY-RAB" like the way [[Literature/TheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn Huckleberry Finn]] pronounces it. In British English it's pronounced "A-rəb."
* Likewise, both ''Muslim'' and the older spelling ''Moslem'' come from an Arabic word that English speakers often pronounce wrong based on how it's transliterated. The "u" in ''Muslim'' is pronounced like the "u" in ''pudding'' or ''butcher'', or the "oo" in ''foot'' or ''book''. Think of how someone from OopNorth pronounces ''up north''.
* Stephen J. Cannell (rhymes with "channel")
* Creator/MattGroening (rhymes with "raining")
* There is an actress named Creator/KarenCliche ("kleesh")
* Creator/GeorgeDzundza ("zoonza")
* "Deborah Kerr is the star."
** "But UsefulNotes/SteveKerr rhymes with 'sir'."
* Martin "Rekkles" Larsson is pronounced as the word "reckless". It does not rhyme with "shekels" or "heckles."
* The "Seuss" in Creator/DrSeuss is pronounced Soyce (rhymes with voice). Dr. Seuss himself stated this many times during his life, but nobody seems to remember or care (the producers of ''Theatre/{{Seussical}}'' most certainly didn't). A collaborator of Seuss's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss#Pen_names_and_pronunciations wrote of him:]]
-->You're wrong as the deuce\\
And you shouldn't rejoice\\
If you're calling him "Seuss".\\
He pronounces it "Soice".
* Similarly, the first name of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, being Italian in origin, should be pronounced "cone-doh-leet-zuh" (rhyming with "pizza"). But most people shorten the first "o" and leave out the "t" sound. The name is derived from the musical term "con dolcezza," which is pronounced "con dol-chets-tsuh," with the main stress on the (short) "e."
* Scandinavian tongues have weird pronunciation rules, for example the Norwegian name Kjerstine is pronounced "cher-steen-uh."
* Creator/SteveBlum pronounces his last name as "bloom". He isn't known to get annoyed about it too often, though.
* Many people pronounce Creator/VicMignogna as it is written, which is wrong. It's pronounced something like Min-yon-na.
* There is an Israeli talk show host named Guy Pines. For you non-Israelis: it’s a corruption of the German surname Pins, since Hebrew doesn’t have word-final consonant clusters[[note]]unless it’s a consonant that isn’t t/d and a morphemic -t[[/note]], pronounced PEA-ness, but we all know what that ''really'' sounds like. To avoid awkwardness abroad[[note]]He has often interviewed foreign celebrities, and yes, it’s gotten awkward; when he told Creator/JuliaRoberts his name, she said hers was ‘Woman Vagina’.[[/note]], he often claims it’s pronounced like the plural tree type.
* Standard British pronunciation of Maurice is "Morris" rather than "more-ees".
* English novelist Oliver Onions would have you pronounce it "oh-NYE-onz".
* Creator/{{Cillian|Murphy}} (KIL-ian, [[BerserkButton not SIL-ian]]) Murphy definitely qualifies. (Names starting with C are ''always'' a hard C in Irish.)
* Major League Baseball outfielder Matt Diaz has gone on record to state that it's pronounced "DIE-az", even though the typical Spanish pronunciation for this surname is "DEE-ath" (for European Spanish) or "DEE-ahs" (for Latin American Spanish).
* Former Major League Baseball catcher Jorge Fábregas pronounces his name "George Fabber-gass".
* Creator/TaylorLautner pronounces his surname as "LOWT-ner" instead of "LAHT-ner".
* Inverted by Creator/RickyGervais -- he insists on the Anglicised pronunciation of his surname ("ger-VASE") despite the fact that it's of French origin and historically pronounced "ger-VAY". And by "historically", we mean "his father, probably, and if not his grandfather": his dad was a Franco-Ontarian (i.e. French-Canadian from Ontario) from [[NamesTheSame London]] (the one halfway between Windsor/Detroit and Toronto) who came to Britain as part of [[UsefulNotes/CanucksWithChinooks the forces]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and settled there after the war.
* The second-to-last person to rule China during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) was the Empress Dowager Cixi (pinyin transliteration), who was a contemporary of Queen Victoria and was sometimes compared to her. Most English speakers would probably pronounce her name "Seezee", but in Mandarin it was the much less feminine-sounding [[ValuesDissonance (to English ears, anyway)]] "zuh-SHEE".
* Retired American Football quarterback Brett Favre (rhymes with "starve", not "favor")
* Actor [[Series/SportsNight Peter]] [[Series/SixFeetUnder Krause]] pronounces his surname "KRAU-zuh," rather than the more-common-in-America single-syllable pronunciation.
* The American Civil Rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois supposedly insisted that people pronounce his surname "duh-BOYSE", rather than the standard French "doo-BWAH", because he hated the racism of French society in the early 20th century.
* Music/{{Nickelback}}'s Chad and Mike Kroeger's last name is pronounced Kroo-ger like Freddy, but Americans seem to say it as Kroger like the grocery store.
* Music/{{Rammstein}} keyboardist Flake Lorenz (his real first name is Christian, but no one calls him that) pronounces his nickname as 'Flah-kuh' rather than 'Flayke'.
** Which [[ItMakesSenseInContext makes sense]]: Flake and the other members of Rammstein are Germans, and "flah-kuh" is the standard German pronunciation of said nickname.
* The writer Creator/JamesBranchCabell pronounced his last name CAB-ble, not ca-BELL. To correct the mispronunciation, he came up with a rhyming couplet: "Tell the rabble his name is Cabell."
* Gyllenhaal, of Jake and Maggie fame, is ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=K6nXIdx1hFw#t=110 apparently]]) pronounced "Yillenhoolihay".
* In an instance that takes this trope UpToEleven, the old Southern surname "Enroughty" is pronounced "Darby." No, seriously. A newspaper clipping from [[OlderThanRadio ''The Nation'' in 1887]] offers a more detailed explanation:
-->It is related that the first Enroughty who settled in Henrico County became so incensed and resentful at the mispronunciation of his surname--some calling it Enr-itjfty, others Enrooty, and others again Enrowty—that he insisted, whenever spoken to, that he should be called "Darby." ... The family has ever been tenacious of the name of Enroughty and equally tenacious of the name of "Darby," and if a stranger should happen to call any of them by any name other than that last given, he would immediately be requested to say "Darby." In all writings, bank accounts, and poll-books—indeed, wherever it is necessary to write the true name—it is spelled Enroughty, but invariably pronounced "Darby." We read, in official reports of the operations of Grant's and Lee's armies below Richmond, of "the battle of Darbytown," but, in truth, the locality was Enroughtytown.
* The Chicago Blackhawks' Jonathan Toews falls into this. It's "Tayves", despite the spelling.
** Toews' ex-teammate Dustin Byfuglin is pronounced Buff-lin (to the point his nickname is "Big Buff").
* The surname of UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball player Kevin Pillar is pronounced like the feminine Spanish name "Pilar".
* Prince Rainier of Monaco's name was pronounced "rahn-YAY", unlike Mt. Rainier (see under Places below).
* There is a famous singer in Russia named Nikolai Baskov. Normally, his last name is pronounced "bus-KOFF" and means "of small and low voice". When he became famous, he changed the pronunciation to "BAHS-kuff" ("of Basque descent").
* The band Music/{{Sade}}, which takes its name from the lead singer Sade Adu (Sade being short for Folasade), is pronounced "Sha-DAY", not "Sahd" as in the Marquis du Sade. Another common mispronunciation is "SHAR-day", which has even led to several children being named Sharde after the band.[[note]]As noted in the "Music" folder, this last pronunciation came about because the band's record label included "Pronounced SHAR-DAY" as a pronunciation guide on its first album. Only one problem—the label didn't realize that in most American accents, the letter "R" is pronounced wherever it appears in print.[[/note]]
* Kim Jong Un's name is regularly mispronounced in British media, creating a hyperforeignism by pronouncing "Jong" as "Yong", when really it's just plain old "Jong". Strangely less of a problem in American media.
* The winemaking Mondavi family of Napa Valley originally used the Americanized pronunciation of "mon-DAY-vee". Then in 1965 amid family turmoil, eldest son Robert left to start his own winery, and began pronouncing it "mon-DAH-vee".
* The name "Koch" is normally pronounced like "Coke" with a softer K at the end. Former UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity Mayor Ed Koch pronounced his last name as "Kotch", and Baltimore Ravens punter Sam Koch is pronounced as "Cook", which actually is the literal translation of Koch.
* Linguist Noam Chomsky's last name is a common Russian one, and is supposed to be pronounced with a Russian kh-sound. It seems he doesn’t care, though, and even in the linguistic community they pronounce it with an English ch-sound.
* Some English-speaking people with the last name of Benoit, which is French, give it the traditional French pronunciation of "ben-WAH". Others pronounce it the way it looks to English speakers, "Ben-OYT".
** See: Wrestler Wrestling/ChrisBenoit (ben-WAH) versus bowler Bob Benoit or former NBA player Benoit Benjamin (both ben-OYT).
* Patrick Brontë, father of the famous Brontë Sisters was Anglo-Irish and born as Patrick Brunty. At some point, he decided to change the spelling of his name to Brontë, which indicates the pronunciation of the root word Gaelic surname (as well as of course sounding "posher"). It's also been speculated that the change was inspired by UsefulNotes/HoratioNelson being awarded the title Duke of Bronté.
* Actor Ian Ziering's first name is pronounced "Eye-An" rather than the more usual pronunciation, though weirdly enough his surname is pronounced the way you'd expect it to be. He lampshaded this while on ''[[Series/TheApprentice Celebrity Apprentice]]'', when Geraldo Rivera completely mangled his name during an all-important presentation, causing Ian to snark "Maybe you should just call me 'Eee-an,' it'd be easier for everyone."
* Creator/MelBlanc (pronounced "blank") and Creator/JBBlanc (pronounced "blonk"). Mel's surname was spelled with a "K" originally, but he later changed the spelling because one of his teachers said that he was just like his name: blank. "Blonk" approximates the correct pronunciation of B-L-A-N-C; it is a French surname (a nasalised "blah") and JB was born in France despite being English.
* The two US presidents with the last name Roosevelt both pronounced it slightly differently. Teddy said roʊzəvɛlt (roh-zuh-velt), whereas FDR went by roʊzəvəlt (roh-zuh-vuhlt).
* It's a running gag among mathematicians that if you can pronounce "Constantin Carathéodory" correctly then you are one yourself. (Actually, it isn't that hard, just lay the stress on the -ry. But if it comes out like [[Music/BillyJoel "He works at Carathéodory's down on Sullivan Street"]]...you failed.)
* Beatrice Rana doesn't look hard, but if you're not Italian, it gets confusing. While Americans say "BEE-uh-tris" or "BEE-tris", Rana and most Italians prefer "Bee-uh-TREE-chay". [[http://www.theaterjones.com/ntx/2013vancliburninternationalpianocompetition/20130517072132/2013-05-17/Meet-the-Pianists-Beatrice-Rana One interviewer]] felt they had to include a pronunciation guide at the beginning.
* Most English speakers nowadays call the famous Roman JOO-lee-us SEE-zer. This can cause consternation for Latin scholars, who either go along with this pronunciation (which sounds completely ridiculous in Latin), or risk sounding pretentious by talking about YOO-lee-us KAI-sar.
* NBA player UsefulNotes/StephenCurry pronounces his first name as "Steffen".
* Former NBA player Mark Aguirre's last name is pronounced as "A-gwyre", instead of the traditional Spanish pronunciation "Ah-gi-rre".
* Comedian Creator/DavidKoechner pronounces his surname "Keck-ner" not "Coke-ner".
* The [=McCaughey=] family of Iowa, which includes the first set of septuplets that all survived infancy (born in 1997), pronounces its name "[=McCoy=]".
* Filipino volleyball player Alyssa Valdez. You pronounce her first name as "A-lye-sa", not like you would the first name of Alyssa Milano.
** And while we're at it, Filipino actress Bea Alonzo's first name is pronounced "Bei-ya", not like westerners would the first name of singer Bea Miller or the character Bea from ''WesternAnimation/FishHooks'' (both pronounced as in "bee").
* You know that round, hard hat known as a bowler in England and a derby in the US? It was created in 1845 by the hatters Lock & Co of St James's Street in London for Edward Coke, Earl of Leicester, who wanted a hat for his gamekeepers which would protect them from overhanging branches. Lock & Co is still trading and you can still buy such a hat there but it is neither a bowler[[note]] from T & W Bowler & Co of Southwark, who supplied the moulded shellac shell[[/note]] or a derby but always a coke after the original client. It's pronounced COOK.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' co-creator Joe Ansolabehere-- his surname is not as unpronounceable as it looks. It's pronounced "Anso-leh-bare".
* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' author Brian Jacques' surname was pronounced "Jakes," despite using the French spelling.
* Two [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]] players and Hall of Fame inductees with the same first name pronounce it differently. Terrell Davis, a running back inducted in 2017, puts the accent on the second syllable. Terrell Owens, a wide receiver inducted in 2018, accents the first syllable.
* Football manager José Mourinho (Portuguese, not Spanish) is pronounced Joe-say by speakers in England; they often referred to the great player of the past as Peel instead of Peh-lay. The first actually comes close to the native pronunciation (more like Joe-zay). The second... not.
* Creator/JKRowling's name is properly pronounced "rolling" (she says in interviews "as in pin"), though is often mispronounced "RAU-ling". Stephen Fry has suggested that if you have trouble remembering it, just think of her rolling in money.
* UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts gives many people their first understanding of Portuguese pronunciations, given the impact Brazil has had on the sport. In the early days, the announcers often got it wrong.
** The founding family of the UFC is the Gracies, who have had a tradition of sons with names starting with R, which in Portugese, is pronounced like an H at the beginning of the word. Royce Gracie, the first UFC tournament winner, is properly pronounced "Hoyce".
** Former UFC featherweight champ José Aldo's first name is pronounced with a hard J ("Joe-zay"), not a soft J like the Spanish version of the name ("Hoe-zay"). During Aldo's feud with Conor [=McGregor=], [=McGregor=] repeatedly and intentionally mispronounced it. This had been a longtime stumbling block for UFC color commentator Joe Rogan; he consistently forgot and said "Hoe-zay" while his broadcast partner Mike Goldberg always used "Joe-zay".
* Related to Brazil, supermodel Gisele Bündchen[[note]]also known to [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]] fans as Mrs. Creator/TomBrady[[/note]] has a surname that in her country, following the German pronunciation, is said BIN-tchen, though Americans just pronounce the way it's spelled (Buhnd-chen).
* Creator/EmilyRatajkowski has said people are often afraid to mispronounce her last name when they meet. Emily (Rata-cow-ski) with the "J" silent.
* Creator/BethanyJoyLenz of Series/OneTreeHill and Series/GuidingLight fame used to go by Joie Lenz during her days on Guiding Light, but got tired of correcting people's pronunciation of her name. They'd often pronounce it in the French way "jwah" or worse, "Joey" if they were unfamiliar with French. It was just pronounced "joy", and now she just goes by her real name but goes by Joy in RealLife.
* Actor Creator/StevenSeagal pronounces his last name as "Sea-GALL" instead of the usual "SEA-gull". According to an interview, he used to pronounce it the latter way until he was inspired by an exhibit of the painter Chagall.
* British actor Adam Nagaitis pronounces his surname as "na-GUY-tis", rather than "na-GATE-is" like some media outlets have pronouced it.
* Creator/NeilGaiman has said in the past that he's heard both "GUY-mun" and "GAY-man" for his last name. His phonetic rendering is "GAME'N".
* Creator/ConanOBrien pronounces his first name as "CO-nan", and has on a few occasions noted in amusement how whenever Regis Philbin appeared on his show, he would always insist on pronouncing it as "Co-NAN", [[Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian like the barbarian.]]
* Children's author, Creator/LouisSachar, pronounces his surname as "Sacker" with a "K" sound. The beginning of the second ''Literature/WaysideSchool'' book gives the correct pronunciation as well as commenting on how teachers all over the country get it wrong.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life -- Places]]
* Québec, Canada. It's "keh-BECK". In French "qu" renders a hard /k/, and as there is an acute accent on the first syllable, it is pronounced with a clear "eh". Pronouncing the "Qu" as in English is still common and accepted in English-speaking Canada, although here too second syllable is stressed, so there are two "correct" English pronunciations, "kwi-BECK" and "kuh-BECK" (in the first one the vowel is a short "i", in the second a schwa).
* During WWI, there were proposals to change the name of Berlin, NH due to anti-German sentiment at the time. This was dropped when it was pointed out that Berlin, NH is pronounced as BER-lin instead of the German Ber-LIN. Ironically, Berlin, NH has a high population of French Americans and French Canadians.
* Creator/{{ESPN}} guys love to pronounce Detroit as if it were still a French word ("Day-twa"), just for a joke. And you're free to fight amongst yourselves as to whether it's pronounced "Duh-TROIT" or "DEE-troit."
* Mackinac Bridge - Mackin''aw'', that's the law. Mackin''ac'', that's just wack!
* The working class suburb Mangere in Auckland, New Zealand (pronounced MAH-NGE-RE according to the Māori or MAN-gerry in common use), is sometimes fondly referred to as "Mon-ZHER" by its inhabitants.
* Louisville: If you live in Louisville you pronounce it as lul-vul. If you are from anywhere else you may pronounce it as Lou-is-ville, Lou-ie-ville or Low-ville. Kentucky, at least. The other Louisvilles are pretty straightforward in their "Lewie-vill" pronunciation. Except for Ohio (Lew-is-ville).
** Ohio is sort of wonky with its place names: Lima = LIE-ma; Rio Grande = RYE-o Grand; Bellefontaine = Bell Fountain; Versailles (ver-SALES), Campbell (CAM-ell), Russia (RUE-she), Milan (MY-lan), Conneaut (KAHN-ee-awt), Mantua (MAN-a-way), and Berlin (BER-lin). Not to mention that Ohio has both Louisville and Lewisville, and they're both pronounced as LEW-iss-vihl.
* In Nebraska:
** Beatrice: the stress goes on the second syllable (bee-A-tris). Rumor has it, we can thank train stations, back before amplification: the flat "AAA" is easier to hear over a crowd than "EEE".
** Norfolk: pronounced nor-''fork''. The town was named after the North Fork River, but the United States Postal Service assumed they meant "Norfolk". The original in England is pronounced something like ''Narr-FUCK'' by people who live there and its county town sounds like "Narridge".
** Papillion: "pa-PILL-yon". Originally a French name, ''papillon'' (butterfly), which would be pronounced ''papyo(n)''. The nearby river is called "Papio".
* Nevada: If you live either there or in surrounding states, chances are you say "neh-VA-duh" with the vowel in the middle syllable pronounced like the vowel in "flat". If you don't, you probably say "neh-VAH-duh" with the "a" pronounced like the "o" in "bother" (which, for English English pronouncers, is like the "ar" in "larder"). In at least parts of the deep South, it can even be "NEH-vuh-duh".
* If a place in an English-speaking country ends with the suffix -cester (as opposed to -chester or -caster) you know it's going to be irregular. That includes American places that have inherited the irregular pronunciation from the English places.
** Worcester, in both England and Massachusetts, is pronounced "WUSS-ster". That is, with a "u" sound like in "puss", not like in "nut". Hence Worcestershire Sauce (WUSS-ster-sher).
** Gloucester is "Gloster".
*** And whilst you are in "Gloss-ter-shire," make sure that you pronounce the town of Berkeley "Bark-lee". Pronouncing it "Berk-lee", as the Americans do with one with California (which is named after the one in England), will just get you a lot of blank looks from the locals.
** Others include Leicester ("Lester"), Bicester ("Bister"), Towcester ("Toaster"), Alcester ("Olster") and Rocester ("Roaster")...
* Leominster is "Lemon-ster" in Massachusetts, and "Lemster" in England.
* The (somewhat fairy-tale) name of the village of Appletreewick in North Yorkshire, UK is pronounced "Ap-trick" by locals.
* The village of Athelstaneford in Scotland is pronounced "EL-shen-ferd", at least by locals. What makes it slightly more bizarre is that the village is named after the medieval king Athelstan, whose name is pronounced as it looks.
* In Northumbria there's a town called Alnwick "Anne-Nick" not far from the coastal village of Alnmouth "Anne-muth".
* Great Britain is full of this sort of thing, both in personal names and place names. For example...
** Mr. Featherstonehaugh (FAN-shaw)
** Mr. Menzies (MING-iss). Can also be used as a first name, as in politician Menzies Campbell (MING-iss CAM-ble). Partly because it wasn't originally a 'z' in the middle there, but the old Middle Scots letter 'yogh'. Early Scots printers didn't have a handy yogh in their fonts, so used the similarly shaped 'z' instead.
** Stiffkey (STOO-kee), Cley (CLY) and Wymondham (WIND-um) in Norfolk. Just to confuse visitors there's also Costessey (Cossey) and Happisburgh (HAWSboro).
** Leicester (LES-tuh) and its attendand -shire (LES-tuh-shuh).
** Cholmondeley is pronounced like "Chumley" (/ˈtʃʌmli/).
** The town of Hednesford in the West Midlands, pronounced "Hens-fud", in a similar manner to Wednesday - not Head-Nes-Ford.
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marylebone Marylebone]] in London. [[http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/two-london-questions-one-of-which-is-really-dumb.cfm Which can be said quite a few ways.]] Mary-le-bone, Marry-le-bone, Marleybun (the right one, says Wiki), Mairbun, Mbn.
** In any place name ending in 'wick' or 'wich', such as Chiswick and Greenwich, the 'W' is silent. So Chiswick is 'chiz-ick' not 'chiz-wick', Greenwich is 'gren-itch' not 'green-witch'. Also Southwark is 'Suthuk'.
*** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in an '80s beer commercial voiced by Creator/JohnCleese -- where he deliberately mispronounced Greenwich, Connecticut as "Green Witch, Connect-i-cut".
*** The upstate New York town of Greenwich ''is'' pronounced 'green-wich'. You know, just to be different.
*** In the opening scene of ''Theatre/OnTheTown'', Chip demonstrates that he knows UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity only from a guidebook by pronouncing the name of one neighborhood "Green-witch Village".
** And Norwich is pronounced "Norrich".
** Towcester. As in the thing you use to make toast.
** Also, the town Worsley (War-sley) and the surname Worsley (Wurss-ley) are both pronounced differently.
** Blackley in Manchester is pronounced "Blakely".
** Should the 'l' in Holme be silent or not?
** The surname St John is pronounced "Sinjin", like Literature/JaneEyre's cousin.[[note]]Can also be seen as a given name—the birth name of American beach volleyball legend Sinjin Smith is Christopher St. John Smith.[[/note]] St Mary Axe, a street in the [[UsefulNotes/OneLondonThirtyThreeBoroughs City of London]], is likewise pronounced "Simmery Axe", as in the PatterSong from ''Theatre/TheSorcerer''.
** Plymouth is pronounced "Plimmuth".
** Wymondham is pronounced "Wind-um".
** The North Yorkshire village of Chop Gate is pronounced "Chop Yat"[[note]]"yat" being the local dialect word for "gate"[[/note]][[note]][[http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/chop-gate-chop-yat-just-13975880 also apparently subverted by the actual residents]][[/note]].
* Newfoundland is not, in fact, New-Found-Land, it's Newfin-LAND.
** That's it. Oh, and it's not to be pronounced as "New Finland" either. Many a tourist has made that mistake.
** To add to the confusion, Leif Eriksson discovered "Vinland" (Wineland), which is thought to be the southern tip of Newfoundland.
** Though some people pronounce it more like Newfun-land.
* It's illegal in Arkansas to pronounce the final "s".
** Speaking of which, the pronounciation of "Arkansas" is an easy way to tell if a speaker's from the state itself or Kansas. Arkansans say "AR-kan-saw", and Kansans use the "Ar" as a prefix, something like "ar-KAN-sas".
** Then there's the Arkansas River, which begins in Colorado and is often pronounced with a final "s" outside the state of the same name.
* Downtown [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity Manhattan]] has Houston (HOW-sten) Street. It is not pronounced the same as the city of UsefulNotes/{{Houston}} (HYOO-stin), Texas. The former was named after William Houstoun, and the latter named after Sam Houston.
** Similarly, Houston County, GA, is also pronounced HOW-sten. HYOO-stin may start a fight.
* Several small towns in the Midwest United States are named for more famous world cities and pronounced differently, such as Cairo, Illinois (pronounced KAY-row) and Cairo, Ohio (pronounced "CARE-oh") and [[Film/{{Hoosiers}} Milan, Indiana]], Milan, Illinois, Milan, Michigan and Milan, Ohio (all pronounced "MY-lun"). Also in Ohio there is a town called Vienna, pronounced Vye-ANN-ah... which contrasts with Vienna, Illinois (vye-ENN-uh).
** In Iowa, you'll find both Madrid (MAD-rid) and Nevada (ne-VAY-da).
** Same with Missouri, with New Madrid instead of simply Madrid. Missouri also has Versailles ("ver-SAILS") and Vichy (somewhere between "vit-shee" and "vishee", definitely ''not'' "VEE-shee"). There's also Rolla, pronounced "RAH-luh", named after Raleigh, North Carolina but spelled phonetically.
** Speaking of Madrid, the small artsy town of that name in New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, is pronounced "MAH-drid" (seen in the film ''Wild Hogs'').
* Many non-native Minnesotans have trouble pronouncing "Mahtomedi", "Wayzata", "Duluth", and "Shakopee". Well, maybe not Duluth, but the others...
* And one more for Ohio: {{UsefulNotes/Toledo|Ohio}}. The Northwest Ohio city is pronounced Toe-LEE-doh, as opposed to the Spanish city (its official sister city), pronounced Toe-LAY-doh.
* Sorta subverted in Louisiana where half the places and surnames actually ''are'' French.
** And on the subject of New Orleans, it's only Nawlins if you can say it Yat; otherwise it's NEW-or-lins (pronounced as one word), not New-or-leans.
*** It's impossible to phoneticize as one word, but it's an unaccented 'nuh oe linz' with the vowels schwa'd together. But then you have street names with spellings in familiar English that locals will insist on pronouncing "Bur-GUN-dee".
** Played straight with the local pronunciation of Chartres Street, which natives will insist on pronouncing like "charters". In actual French it's "shartr", but one might as well write Chartres as only the S doesn't count. Chartres is a city (and possibly a title linked to whoever the street was named after), a charte is... a charter.
** It became fairly easy to see who was a native of the region and who arrived after Hurricane Katrina thanks to pronunciations of words like Fortier (FOR-shay, not for-TEE-air) and Calliope (CAL-ee-oh, not the Greek daughter-of-Zeus cuh-LIE-oh-pee).
** Not to mention the region called Plaquemines Parish (parishes are the equivalent in Louisiana of counties), pronounced "PLACK-er-mans".
** The small town of Welsh, Louisiana, is pronounced "welch".
* Texas has several places and roads with odd pronunciations:
** Burnet is pronounced so that the mnemonic "It's Burnet; Durn it! Learn it!" rhymes.
** Montague County is pronounced "Mon-TAYG" instead of the European "MON-Tuh-Gyu".
** Gruene is pronounced "Green" according to websites about the town, and was founded by German immigrants.
** Austin has several places with interesting pronunciations. The Pedernales River is frequently pronounced "PER-duh-na-lis"; Manchaca Road is "MAN-shack", and the nearby suburbs of Buda, Pflugerville, and Leander are pronounced "BYEU-duh", "FLOO-gur-vil", and "LEE-an-dur", respectively.
** Refugio is "Re-fur-ee-oh". When first settled, it was pronounced as in Spanish, but that changed thanks to a large influx of Irish settlers in the 1830s. Nowadays, even local Spanish speakers use the "odd" pronunciation.
** Bexar County is "Bay-err" or "Bear".
* Trevor, Wisconsin is pronounced "TREE-ver", not like the name Trevor. Folks from the southern half of Milwaukee County frequently leave the L out of Milwaukee (ma-WAWK-ee). Many French city names in Wisconsin are deliberately mispronounced. If you, for example, pronounce "Prairie du Chien" (means "Dog's Prairie", after the local Indian chief) in the proper French as "Pra-RIE du Shee-ohn," you'll be corrected to "Prarie du Sheen." Likewise, Fond du Lac (literally, "bottom of the lake" - it's at the southern tip of Lake Winnebago) is "Fondle-ack." Oddly, other places like Lac du Flambeaux ("Lake of Torches") and Eau Claire ("Clear Water") are pronounced as they would be in French. With Indian names in the upper Midwest, good luck. We'll be sure to make fun of you for mispronouncing "Oconomowoc." BTW, "Racine" is either "ray-SEEN" or "ra-SEEN," about 50-50 each way. Don't let the locals snow you.
** Yet another Wisconsin hint: It's "New BER-lin", not "New Ber-LIN". Even though it's named after the city in Germany, the pronunciation has shifted following UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. And the second "A" is silent in "Shawano". (it's NOT "sha-WA-no" - it properly has only two syllables ("SHAW-no"), not three!)
** Speaking of Fond du Lac, there is an elementary school there that is named Pier but is pronounced "pi-er" but people calling some times pronounce it as "pe-er".
** And then there's Waupun, pronounced "wuh-PAHN", because of course it is.
* People of Prescott, Arizona (and probably by extension, Prescott Valley) say the town's name is pronounced PRES-skit, not PRES-cott.
* Tooele, Utah. It may take visitors a while to realize it is the town referred to when people said, "tuh-WILL-uh". The spelling actually got changed from the closer-to-the-mark Tuilla in the 19th Century.
* Hurricane, Utah, is pronounced HURR-kin (two syllables). Hurricane, West Virginia, on the other hand, is pronounced HURR-i-kin (three syllables).
* Spanish Fork (Utah [again]) is said just like it looks unless you're from there, in which case it is Spanish Fark.
* Weber County, Utah (and Weber State University located there) is pronounced WEE-ber.
* Pierre, the capital of South Dakota, is pronounced PEER, '''''not''''' PEA-AIR.
* The western Colorado town of Ouray is pronounced "YOU-ray". It's named after a Ute Indian Chief.
* A major road in Houston is Kuykendahl. Pronounced KIRK-en-doll.
** The H at the beginning of the name of the Houston suburb Humble is silent.
* Head north from Houston towards Dallas, head west when you're a couple hours away, and you'll come to Mexia. Pronounced "Muh-HEY-uh".
* Then in west Texas, you have Colorado City. That's "Caw-luh-RAY-doh City" (made confusing by the fact it's on the "Caw-luh-RAH-doh" River).
* The city of Beaufort, South Carolina is pronounced "Buew-fert", while Beaufort, North Carolina is pronounced "Bow-fert". NC also has the town of Bahama (Ba-HAY-ma).
* Missourians are [[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/13/us/politics/missouree-missouruh-to-be-politic-in-missouri-say-both.html?_r=0 slightly divided on this issue]]. Most of us pronounce it "Missour-EE", but a small number of people, primarily from the southern part of the state, pronounce it "Missour-AH".
* People who live in or near UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}} tend to pronounce the city's name as something rather like "Tronno". Toronto, New South Wales is pronounced the same way. [[Series/HockeyNightInCanada Don Cherry]] (who grew up on the other end of Lake Ontario in Kingston, Ontario) tends to call it "trah-na".
* UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}} is pronounced as "Vangcouver" by locals, while outsiders tend to say it like two distinct words[[note]]Which, to be fair, it is in the original Dutch origins of the name[[/note]], in other words "Van" rather than "Vang". While this matches the spelling, it is actually the locals who are following standard English phonetic rules of assimilation (e.g. "ingcome" for "income").
* UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}}, in Canadian English, is pronounced "mun-tree-ALL", while Americans use "mon-tree-ALL" - neither is an exact match for the original French ("mon-HAY-ah-le").
** It's subject to debate among ourselves, with "Mon-rayhal", "Mont-rehal" and "Mon-treal" being the most common way to pronounce it.
* The street "Dalhousie" in Ottawa is pronounced "Dal-HOO-zee" (as per a Scottish accent) while the university in Nova Scotia says "Dal-HOW-zie".
* Speaking of streets in Canada, Dundas St. in Toronto rhymes with "class", not "bus".
* The Canberra suburb of Manuka is pronounced 'mahn-NAH-ka', not 'mah-NU-ka' like the plant.
* The town of Florida, Colorado pronounces its name the Spanish way: fla - REE - da.
* UK place names again: Edinburgh, Middlesbrough and Loughborough are in wildly different parts of the country (Scotland, North Yorkshire and Leicestershire respectively) and all pronounce the section of their names after the B as Borough despite the different spelling. Even weirder is the town of Brough which doesn't pronounce it like the similarly spelt Middlesbrough, but pronounces it as Bruff.
** Arguably, the end of all of these is pronounced as "brə" with a schwa, rather than as "bərə" although it depends on where you reside. Loughborough (Luf-brə) uses the Brough pronunciation above in its first half as well.
** The name Pittsburgh was chosen by General John Forbes when he made plans for a town at the site of Fort Duquesne in western Pennsylvania in 1758. Since Forbes was a native of Scotland, he undoubtedly intended it to be pronounced as "Pittsborough" or "Pittsburra". In fact, Forbes originally spelled it "Pittsbourgh". But with the combination of waning Scottish influence in the area, and the city charter which inadvertently omitted the H from the name, the "berg" pronunciation of "-burgh" became the accepted one. But it wasn't just Pittsburgh. Cities like Newburgh and Plattsburgh, New York have always used the "-berg" variation.
* The Couch in Couch St. in Portland, OR is pronounced "Cooch", not "Couch".
* The "correct" pronunciations of Oregon include: OR-uh-gun, OR-uh-gin, OR-ih-gun, or Or-ih-gin (not Orry-gone, Orry-gun, Or-gone, or Or-ray-gone).
** Unless you're talking about the suburb of Toledo, Ohio, where it's OR-ih-gone or orry-GONE. Yes, Ohio has a pathological inability to pronounce place names the same as where they were borrowed from.
* In something of an inversion: North Versailles, Pennsylvania was intended to be named for the French palace. However, the name is pronounced "North Vur-SAYLZ".
* The Rainier in Mt. Rainier is pronounced "Rai-NEER", not "Rai-ni-er". [[{{Pun}} It's only pronounced "Rai-ni-er" if you're camping on the west side of the mountain.]]
* Aloha, Oregon is pronounced with a silent H, unlike the Hawaiian word.
* Arab, Alabama is pronounced "AY-rab" (just like Huck Finn's pronunciation of said word, noted in the "People" folder above).
* Boise, Idaho. Newscasters call it Boy-ZEE, but its Boy-SEE, to the irritation of its residents and repeated corrections.
** And the small town of Boise City, Oklahoma is "Boyce City" (more often slurred into "boycity").
* Many people pronounce Tokyo with three syllables (toh-kee-oh); it's more accurately pronounced toh-kyo, with the "kyo" one syllable (its name translates to "Eastern Capital"). To make matters more confusing, it's four "beats" in Japanese, as both O's are "long" vowels.
* Spokane, Washington. It is not spo-KAYN (as in cane), it is spo-KAN (as in can). The musical ''Love Life'' got this wrong.
* Schuylerville, New York is pronounced (SKY-ler-ville) while the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania is pronounced (SKOO-kull). The accident-prone Philadelphia freeway next to and named after the Schuylkill river, however, is sometimes called the "Surekill Expressway", especially when discussing the "Conshohocken Curve" (note that "Conshohocken" is pronounced as spelled but can be a tongue-twister anyway).
** Also in New York: The town near Rochester called Chili is pronounced CHY-ly, not "chilly" as it is commonly mispronounced by non-locals.
* The East-Central PA city named after the country in the Middle East "Lebanon" (Leb-a-non) is pronounced locally as "LEB-nen". As a twofer, one famous product of the area is a kind of sweet spicy lunchmeat Lebanon Bologna, which the locals pronounce "LEB-nen bal-LOW-ee".
* In Vermont, Charlotte is pronounced "shar-lot" and Calais rhymes with palace, instead of the French pronunciation Cal-lay.
* In Rhode Island "Coventry" is "Cawventry" instead of "Cuhventry".
* Yarmouth, Falmouth, and many other old fishing villages in New England are properly pronounces YAR-mit, FAL-mit, and so on.
* "Duquesne" is pronounced "Du-KANE". But in "North Versailles", it's "ver-SALES", not "ver-SIGH". Because why should Western Pennsylvania be consistent?
* Versailles, Kentucky is also pronounced "ver-SALES". The Lexington, Kentucky community of Athens is historically pronounced AY-thenz.
* People from Illinois will jump down your throat if you make the mistake of pronouncing the "S".
* The Virginia cities Portsmouth, Norfolk, Huguenot, and Suffolk get this too.
** Portsmouth: Ports-smith, not Ports-mouth.
** Norfolk: Nohr-fick, Nohr-fuhk, or Naw-fick, but not Nohr-fohlk
** Huguenot: Hue-ge-not, not huh-gway-not or hoo-ge-no (or variations of the two)
** Suffolk: Suhf-fick or Suhf-fuhk, but not Suhf-fohlk
* Norfolk, Nebraska is pronounced "nor-''fork''". (It's named after the North Fork River and was supposed to be ''spelled'' "Norfork".)
* People like to pronounce the city of Kobe (written in Japanese as "Koube"), Japan, and the steak that takes its name from the city, like Kobe Bryant ("koh-bee"), when it's actually "kohh-beh". In Japanese, "Koubi" (交尾) means "animal mating", and when applied to human intercourse means "very rough sex".
* [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucking,_Austria makes note]] that the name of ''that'' town in Austria rhymes with "booking". That still doesn't stop them stealing the town sign just so they could say [[{{Pun}} that they got to Fucking]] - what does is that the signs were replaced with theft-proof versions after the old ones were swiped too many times.
* Washington state has a few of these, besides Spokane and Mt. Rainier noted above. Most famous are Cle Elum (pronounced "Clellum"), Puyallup (pronounced "pyoo-WALL-up"), and Sequim (pronounced "Squim").
** Yakima is pronounced "YAK-uh-maw", not "Yuh-KEEM-uh". The tribe name is spelled Yakama because they realized settlers got it wrong.
* The Australian city of Brisbane is pronounced Briz-bin, not Briz-bain (though Brisbane, California ''is'' pronounced Briz-bain even though it was named after the Australian Brisbane).
** Same with other Australian cities: Melbourne is Melbin, not Mel-born, Canberra is Canbra not Can-bear-ra, and the first syllable of Fremantle is "free".
* French fur trappers brought the word ''butte'', meaning "small hill", to the American West in the 1800s. The French pronunciation is "boot". Americans shifted it to "byoot", most famously in the city of Butte, Montana. People not aware of that sometimes assume that it's supposed to be pronounced [[UranusIsShowing "butt"]].
* Hobart, IN is usually pronounced "Ho-burt" by residents rather than "Ho-bart" like the one in Tasmania (note it wasn't named for that one).
* Newark, Delaware is pronounced "New-ARK", while Newark, New Jersey is pronounced more like "Nork" (1 syllable) and Newark, Ohio is more like "Nerk" (also 1 syllable). None are pronounced "NEW-erk".
** If you're looking for a Newark that actually ''is'' NEW-erk, go to the San Francisco Bay Area.
* Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills is pronounced "roh-DAY-oh". There's also a suburb of San Francisco called Rodeo with the same pronunciation.
* The African nation of Niger is pronounced "nee-ZHAIR", not "NI-jer" or [[NWordPrivileges that other pronunciation]]. This is justified since it had been colonized by the French.
* Martinez, Georgia (a suburb of Augusta). The middle syllable is pronounced like "tin" with very little stress on it (it could almost be "Mart'nez, GA). Also Louisville, Georgia, unlike Kentucky, pronounces the -s.
* One of Atlanta's main thoroughfares is Ponce de Leon Avenue, but locals pronounce it "PONTS duh LEE-on".
* [=DeKalb=] County, Georgia is pronounced as "De KAB" County, with a silent 'l'. [=DeKalb=] County, Illinois is pronounced as "Di-KALB" County, with a pronounced 'l'.
* The town of Saint Helena in California's Napa Valley is traditionally pronounced "Saint Hel-EEN-uh", but possibly due to French influence as Napa's winemaking prestige has grown, it's shifting to something more like "santa-LAY-na", sounding like it's just one word.
** Contrast with Montana's state capital of Helena, which is "HEL-en-uh".
* Beijing is regularly mispronounced by English speakers as "Beizhing" (like the "s" in "measure") rather than the Chinese pronunciation, which is exactly how it looks (with a soft "g" like in "gin").
* During the 2014 Winter Olympics, some even pronounced the Russian city Sochi (again, pronounced exactly how it looks) as "Soshi".
* A street in UsefulNotes/{{Houston}} is spelled Kuykendall. Locals pronounce it "Kirk-end-all", but visitors may pronounce that first syllable to rhyme with "guy", "boy", or even "buoy", and the last two may be changed to "[[Franchise/{{Barbie}} Ken doll]]".
* In the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, there is a Raja Gabaglia Avenue. It's commonly referred as "Raja", but the surname is usually pronounced the way it's spelled instead of the proper Italian ("gab-alley-ah").
* Whereas the Thames River that flows through London is pronounced "temms", the Thames River of New London, Connecticut is pronounced "thayms". That pronunciation carries over to the historic Thames Street of Newport, Rhode Island.
* UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}:
** Grand Blanc is pronounced as if it were the English phrase "Grand Blank". rather than the Frenchy "Gron Blon''.
** Lake Orion, Orion Township, and associated roads, etc., are pronounced "OR-ee-uhn," rather than "oh-RY-an" like the constellation.
** The constellation is pronounced "OR-ee-on" if you go by the original Greek pronunciation.
** Canton is pronounce "CAN-tuhn" even though it is named after the old name for Guangzhou (pronounced "can-TON"). (That region of Wayne County also had townships named [[LocationlThemeNaming Pekin and Nankin]], which have since split off into a number of other municipalities.)
** Saline is pronounced "Sah-LEEN", not "SAY-leen" like the nasal spray. (The derivation is from French: there are salty springs in the area historically used for salt production.)
** In the UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} area, Dequindre Road is always pronounced "De-KWIN-der" (rather than the French, which is more like "deh-KANDR''), and Livernois Road/Street/Avenue is universally pronounced "Liver-noy" (a sort of half-French, half-English compromise). However, the pronunciation of Lahser Rd., five miles to the west of Livernois, is the subject of frequent disagreement among area residents.
* Speaking of "Saline", counties in Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska are also pronounced with the accent on the second syllable, for much the same reason as the Michigan community. In the case of Illinois, the salt springs first gave their name to the Saline River, which in turn gave its name to the county.
* The well-known French city of Nice is pronounced "Neese" (rhymes with geese), not "Nice" (rhymes with ice).
* While Sydney's pronunciation is fairly straightforward, some of its suburbs can get a bit confusing. It's gotten so bad that in some cases, no two people from different ends of Sydney can really agree on pronunciation:
** La Perouse is universally "La Pe-RUSE" rather than "La Pe-ROWSE"
** Sans Souci is universally "San SOO-chi" instead of the French "Sun Soo-SI"
** Campbelltown is universally called "CAM-bull-town".
** Here's the fun part: For Mosman, is it "MOSS-man" or "MOZ-mun"?
** Minto, much like the Toronto example above, is pronounced with a silent T, sounding like "Minno".
* Welcome to Maine. It's "BANG-gore", not "Banger" (Bangor). It's "CAL-us", not "cal-LAY" (Calais). If you want to go to "MY-KNOT", head for the Dakotas because this is "MY-nut" (and neither is ever "min-NOH").
* More from Scotland: The prosperous Glasgow suburb of Milngavie is pronounced "Mul-GUY". Kirkcudbright in the far south is "Kuh-KOO-bree". Anstruther, on the coast of Fife, is "AIN-ster". The town of Wick in the far north-west is pronounced as you might expect but if you catch the ferry to the Western Isles from the little port village of Uig on Skye you might be surprised to find it pronounced just the same as it's the English version of the Gaelic rendering (Ùige) of the norse-rooted "wick" meaning a bay or an inlet.
* The Britons pronounce Ibiza as "eye-BEE-tha", referencing the Spanish lisp.
* Pronouncing "Mojave" (as in the Mojave Desert or the Mojave Tribe) as "Mo-haVAY" or "Mo-haveh" will get you funny looks from locals. Pronouncing the final "e" as "eh" is a hyperforeignism (even though the English spelling is borrowed from Spanish, the word itself is Native American in origin). Furthermore, the word has three fully spoken syllables. Generally, the only accepted pronunciations are "Mo-ha-VEE" or "Muh-ha-VEE."
* Wyoming has [=DuBois=], pronounced by locals as DOO-boys. This was the source of much frustration when the University of Wyoming got a new president named Philip [=DuBois=], who prefers the standard French pronunciation (duh-BWAH). There is a good chance that hearing his name pronounced the same as the town contributed to his hasty exit from the university.
* CNN announced a disaster in the Taiwanese city of Kay-oh-see-ong. In the alphabetic system used in Taiwan it's spelt Kaohsiung but is pronounced Gow-shung.
* A suburb of Altoona, Pennsylvania called Coupon is sometimes pronounced "q-pawn" reflecting the way locals say the word. Much like the Wyoming town, Pennsylvania also has a DuBois in Clearfield county pronounced "do boys".
* Scammon Bay, Alaska is pronounced like "salmon" is but with a 'c' added in. A popular dish in Scammon Bay that developed by taking advantage of local resources is known as "scrambled salmon" or "scammon" (which led to folk etymology about the origins of the town's name). The dish consists of scrambled eggs with chopped, cooked plain salmon blended in.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life -- Other]]
* "Cache" and "stash" aren't just synonyms; they rhyme as well. If you say "cashay" you mean social prestige (cachet).
* The M1 Garand, the signature rifle of the US armed forces in WWII, was named after it's designer, John Garand. Very often, laymen and even firearms experts pronounce it as "Guh-RAND". But in his life, Garand preferred "GAIR-und".
* "Tarzhay" (Target), normally as a humorous jab at the store.
** Some people think that the company is French, despite Target being headquartered in [[UsefulNotes/TwinCities Minneapolis]].
* People who shop at "Tarzhay" also tend to shop at Jacques Penne (J.C. Penney).
* Orion America Inc. used to have a factory in Princeton, IN, USA, which manufactured cathode-ray tubes for televisions. The most common way for locals to pronounce the name was "or-ree-on", despite the word actually being pronounced "oh-ryan".
** Same thing with Lake Orion and Orion Township, Michigan.
** And Farm Report host Orion Samuelson.
** There's a Okinawan brand of beer called Orion Beer. However, it's pronounced similarly (oh-ree-on). You might get weird looks from the locals if you pronounce it oh-rye-on.
** That's because Orion was originally a ''Greek'' word, which was indeed pronounced "oh-ree-on". "Oh-rye-on" is an artifact of the sound changes that affected English in the 14th and 15th centuries.
* Cornell University is universally pronounced "cor-NELL" now, but Ezra Cornell, its founder, pronounced it "Corn'l".
* Dr. Jekyll was originally pronounced "JEE-kull".
* Japanese in general tends to be mispronounced by English speakers, mostly due to how Japanese only has one way of saying vowels while English has multiple ways. Examples include:
** Anything ending with an e, which usually gets spoke with a long e (ee sound). Words include Karaoke (kah-rah-O-keh), sake (sah-keh), karate (kah-rah-teh), and kamikaze (kah-mee-kah-zeh). A helpful rule is to always imagine an accent over the E (like Franchise/{{Pokemon}}).
** "Manga" should be pronounced "mahn-guh," but is often pronounced like "mane-guh" "mayng-guh." or "man-guh."
** On the flip side, Japanese features many English loan words that have been so completely transformed that most English speakers won't recognize them at all. For example, "irasuto" is "illustration."
* Another Asian word via the conflicting Chinese romanization systems that tends to fall into this is "kung-fu", which is the Wade-Giles reading. The actual way to say it in pinyin is "Gongfu" (Goh-ng-foo).
* "Ouija" is pronounced "wee-yaw," yet many still refer to them as "wee-jee" boards.
* The word "meme" mentioned above is typically pronounced "meem"--which makes sense given its purpose (to transmit ideas and belief information, as genes transmit biological information). Some pronounce it "may-may", most notably Text-To-Speech software. The latter pronunciation is also used to mock people who childishly or overuse memes.
* Creator/StudioGhibli's name is pronounced with a soft G, which is as it would not be in Italian.
* The Navy: it's not Boatswain, it's Bosun. It's not Forecastle, it's Fo'c'sle.
* This one's probably too far gone for rescue, but pronouncing "forte" as "for-tay" is straight affectation. Until the mid-20th century it was pronounced the same way in English as it is in French (where the "e" is silent).
* There are a surprisingly large number of people from England's East Midlands who are blessed with the name ''Shitehead''. According to one member of the clan, the approved pronunciation is SHEETH – ead.
* Jaguar cars and the UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar and Jaguar CD... the ads always pronounce it "Jag-you-are" (which is the standard British and Australian pronounciation) despite the American pronounciation being "Jag-wahr". Then there are those that pronounce it "Jag-wire".
* Creator/{{Sega}} is pronounced as "SEEGA" in Australia, New Zealand, and in the Italian language. It is pronounced this way by some Brits (initially used in advertising), but the correct pronounciation quickly became known to those who played ''VideoGame/{{Sonic the Hedgehog|1}}'' where a chorus sings the company name in the loading screen: "Say-Guh!"
* Many people humorously pronounce "garbage" as "gar-BAHJ".
* Bologna (both the Italian city, and the food) is really supposed to be pronounced "Bo-LON-ya"[[note]]And that's no "baloney"[[/note]]. Music/WeirdAlYankovic however, pronounces it "bolohna" in order to make it sound like "Sharona" (since his song "My Bologna" is a parody of "My Sharona" by The Knack).
* Celtic is supposed to be pronounced "KEL-tic", but that doesn't stop the [[{{UsefulNotes/Basketball}} Boston Celtics]] (or their fans) from pronouncing it "SEL-tic".
** Or indeed the Scottish football team Celtic, who also pronounce it SEL-tic.
* The Native American tribe and the University of Illinois team are the "Ill-eye-nigh", not "Ill-ee-nee"... apparently in the past, a few announcers screwed it up and roused some ire.
* A bit of local trivia at Texas A&M University is that Sbisa Dining Hall, on of several large student cafeterias on the main campus, is properly pronounced "Sbeezah", as it was for the person it was named for, and not "Suh-bee-sah", as most Texas A&M students will invariably say it.
* Santander, the Spanish banking conglomerate which has in recent years expanded to the UK and US, has kept the Spanish pronunciation of its name: "sahn-tahn-DEHR".
* Infamously, the term Chorizo. In most of the Spanish-speaking world, this word is pronounced "Chor-ee-so", while in most of Spain it's "Chor-ee-tho"; while in English it's widely accepted as "Chor-eetz-oh". The less educated pronounce it "Cho-RIH-zoh". Everyone will insist that theirs is the correct way.
* Scots and some English people get very annoyed by 'liquorice' (liquoriss) being pronounced 'liquorish', feeling it is emblematic of lower class people.
* The Finnish city of Tampere is often pronounced "Tam-PAIR" by visiting Anglophone and Francophone tourists. The correct pronunciation is "TAHM-peh-reh".
* Mixed with SpellMyNameWithAnS, some people prefer to pronounce the name of Disney's Touchstone Pictures division as "TUCK-stone".
* Creator/BillCosby once made an educational short film about bicycle safety called "Bicycles are Beautiful". Here he pronounces "bicycle" as "bi-cycle" (as opposed to the usual "bi-sickle").
* Colonel is pronounced "kernel". Which means that despite being spelled with an L, it's homophonous to the Spanish and Portuguese equivalent, "coronel".
* In July 2011, during the American debt ceiling crisis, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was quoted as saying that President Obama had "lots of chutzpah," pronouncing "chutzpah" as "CHOOTZ-pah", instead of "HOOTZ-pah".
* The British pronounciation of "lieutenant" is "lef-TEN-ant". This is actually an InvertedTrope because that's the wrong pronunciation while the Americans say it the proper way ("LYU-ten-ant"). The word is from French origins, with "lieu" meaning "place" and "tenant" meaning "holding" (as in, holding a position). Back in the Middle Ages, the U in some words was interchangeable with a V, so the word was initially pronounced as "LYEV-ten-ant" and finally, "lef-TEN-ant".
* The sudo tool to access root privileges in UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} is pronounced "soo-doo", although a lot of people pronounce it as "pseudo". The confusion comes from the fact that it allows an ordinary user to have root privileges without having to log in as root, in other words, "pseudo root," but the name is derived from ''su''bstitute user ''do''.
* The UsefulNotes/HighSpeedRail company "Thalys" that operates between Benelux, France and Germany chose a name that is easy to pronounce in all adjacent languages, but then they had to screw it up by using a "fancy" spelling - the h is non-phonetic and the "y" is pronounced like the "i" in "hit", making it come out pretty much the way a German would think it should be pronounced even though such a word would more likely be spelled "talis", but that just looks too "pedestrian".
* The actual Swedish way to pronounce "Ikea" is "Eee-Keh-Ah", not Eye-Kee-Ah.
* North Dakota State University's sports teams are nicknamed "the Bison", but the "s" is pronounced like a "z" instead of a hard "s". Woe be to any outsider not aware of this. It's been speculated [[https://www.ndsu.edu/news/view/detail/9349/ that this is due to a lingering French Canadian influence]] in the area. Contrast with the other NCAA Division I schools nicknamed "Bison(s)"—woe be to anyone from North Dakota who speaks of the Bucknell or [[UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC Howard]] "BYE-zon", or the [[UsefulNotes/{{Nashville}} Lipscomb]] "BYE-zons".
* Pasta, being an Italian word, is normally pronounced "pahs-ta", except in Canada, where the first "a" is pronounced as in "past". Canadians do the same to the Japanese auto manufacturer Mazda, eh?
* Chick-fil-A: Many from outside the US who’ve not heard of the brand before tends to pronounce the brand as “Chick-fillah” (as in “chick-filler” with a gangsta slang) and are surprised to learn that it’s actually pronounced “chick-fillet”. (The idiosyncratic capitalization should be a hint...)
* Canadian transportation company Bombardier was pronounced Bom-BAR-Dyeh by international news; in western Canada where it's known as a maker of snowmobiles it's called Bom-buh-DEER. Of course neither fully gets the French pronunciation right, which in addition to the "dyeh" ending has a silent "m".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "To Hare Is Human", Wile E. Coyote introduces himself to WesternAnimation/BugsBunny as "Wile E. Coy-OH-Tay".
* In ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'', god-of-where-three-roads-meet Trivia keeps having to tell people "Actually, it's 'try-VEE-ah'." Unfortunately this is a SLIGHT slip-up -- Trivia in actual mythology was female and a ROMAN goddess. Her name would have been pronounced something like "tree-wee-ah".
* Used in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', when Kim meets her brothers' guidance counselor.
-->'''Kim:''' ... Miss... Guide?\\
'''Miss Guide:''' "Guh-DAY", dear.\\
'''Kim:''' Uh, [[WhosOnFirst g'day to you too.]]
** Used again when Ron Stoppable's father mispronounces place names in Paris. ("Let's go to the LOO-vra.")
* On ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', Rad Thibodeaux, a "self-proclaimed genius", pronounces his last name as "Thi-ba-DAY-oks." This leads to Hank attempting to correct him (Thibodeaux is French -- a very common Cajun name pronounced like Hank says):
-->'''Hank:''' Isn't that pronounced "Tib-a-do?"\\
'''Rad:''' Well, you know, sometimes, by mistake.
** This is also used to show Peggy's [[KnowNothingKnowItAll lack of Spanish-speaking knowledge]], she frequently pronouncing Spanish words as if they were English (such as saying ''llamo'' as lamo instead of yamo) or pronouncing non-Spanish words as if they were Spanish (like pronouncing Iwo Jima as Iwo He-ma).
* Newscaster Brian Pinhead (pih-NAYD) on ''WesternAnimation/TheTick''.
* On ''WesternAnimation/BobbysWorld'', Bobby's family name is Generic, pronounced JEN-eh-rik and mispronounced by everyone else in the world.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
** Inverted when Moe makes fun of Homer for Frenchly pronouncing garage as "ga-RAJ"[[note]]the two most common competing American pronunciations differ mainly by whether or not they sound like they have a D in them[[/note]]. Moe prefers the term "car hole".
** Marge's country club friends Karen, Gillian, Elizabeth, Patricia, Roberta, and Susan all pronounced their names differently than the norm.
** There's also Krabappel which is pronounced "Cruh-BAW-pull". Despite coming up with numerous insulting nicknames for her, none of her students ever think to call her "crab-apple" until season 15. In one episode, there's a set-up where Homer is surprised at hearing the correct pronunciation of her name, only for him to cry "I've been calling her 'Krandall'!" (In reality, this name probably doesn't exist, but in Dutch, Low German and some dialects of High German the word for "apple" is ''Appel'' (''appel'' in Dutch).
** And again when Bart corrects Homer on the pronounciation of "party", insisting that it's "par-TAY".
** An early episode had an argument between Freddy Quimby and a French waiter over whether "chowder" was pronounced "CHOW-dah" or "shau-DAIR".
** During the episode when Marge is kidnapped by a biker gang, they quibble over the pronunciation of resume. In this case, both pronunciations are considered correct.
** An episode when Homer joined the naval reserve.
-->'''Instructor:''' Simpson, as you have experience in a nuclear power plant, you can serve on a submarine.\\
'''Homer:''' Nu-cue-lar. It's pronounced nu-cue-lar.
** "Burns, Baby Burns" has this little exchange.
-->'''Marge:''' Next to Spring and Winter, Fall is my absolute favorite season. Just look at all this beautiful foilage.\\
'''Lisa:''' It's not "foilage," mom, it's "foliage."\\
'''Marge:''' That's what I said, foilage. It doesn't take a nucular scientist to pronounce foilage.
** Of course she later says it properly, and comments how she can't "ex-cape" the living "li-berry" that is her daughter.
** One episode had Homer walking past a gym, somehow thinking the 'y' made a long 'i' sound:
-->'''Homer:''' "Gime"? What's a "gime"? (''goes inside, sees exercise equipment'') Oh! A gime!
** Subverted: Homer makes an appointment with Marge's therapist under the pseudonym "Alias Fakename," which the receptionist pronounces Mr. Fah-kay-nah-may. Homer corrects her. She says "I'll just call you Ali-as."
** In the episode "The Heartbroke Kid", Bart mispronounces cottage cheese as "cotta-hey cheese" when he sees Marge has bought a tub of it. In the Quebec French dub, he mispronounces it as "crottage" for extra ToiletHumour points ("crotte" bringing to mind poop).
** Hilariously inverted in one episode where Lisa was in a class debate with a new girl named Isabel Gutierrez. During the debate, Superintendent Chalmers is able to say Isabel's name flawlessly, but has trouble with Lisa's name, pronouncing it "Seemp-a-son".
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''
** Zapp Brannigan often has trouble with loanwords:
--->'''Zapp:''' Champaggen?\\
'''Leela:''' ''(sarcastically)'' I didn't realize you were such a coin-a-sewer.
** Done again in "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" when he pronounces "bravo" and "encore" as "BRAY-vo" and "enn-KORR".
** And in "The Beast With a Billion Backs", he pronounces "quesadilla" as "kess-a-dill-a" instead of "kess-a-dee-ya".
** And in "The Problem with Popplers":
--->'''Zapp:''' ''(eating a poppler, which, it turns out, are the larval form of the Omicronians)'' Mmm, these would go great with gwack-a-mole! \\
'''Lrrr:''' Stop eating our young! [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking And it's pronounced "gwah-kah-moh-lay"]]!
*** Bender makes the same mistake in "Bender Should Not Be Allowed On Television", when showing off his "flawless" Spanish accent.
** Oddly, though, he has no trouble pronouncing "chutzpah" in "War is the H-Word", "karaoke" in "Amazon Women in the Mood", and "au natural" in "In-a-Gadda-Da Leela".
** In "T: The Terrestrial", Lrrr tells his son Jrrr that his cape isn't "lame" but ''lamé'', which is in fact correct (assuming it's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamé_(fabric) made out of metallic yarns]]).
* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'', during one of their finale's when Captain Hero corrected the host saying "It's pronounced Kah-Pee-Tawn. The Hero is silent." This is also a reference to Captain Hero's behavior after his last name, Shero, is revealed. It's pronounced "Hero", the "S" is silent.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''
** When Peter goes to an ultra-posh auction house surrounded of the wealthiest elite, he says "It would look really good in Lois's crapper... I mean, krah-pee-AY." This pronunciation is immediately corroborated. "Oh yes, I would simply love that in ''my crapier''!"
** Another example:
-->'''Peter:''' Oh sweet, I'm getting an [[CoolCar Audi]]!\\
'''Brian:''' ... Peter, that says "audit".\\
'''Peter:''' No, Brian, it's a foreign car. The "T" is silent.
** And yet another:
-->'''Peter:''' Ha ha, you said "nuclear"! It's "nucular", you dummy, the "S" is silent.
** What about "Can I have ten thousand chicken fa-jie-tas?"
** In "How the Griffin Stole Christmas" Brian says he was dating a cool girl named "Cow-ooch" but Stewie says he was just saying "couch" in a cool way.
** In "The Finer Strings" the principal at Meg's school mispronounces the last name of her performance partner Ruth Cockhammer as "cock-hammer" until she corrects him with "Coch-a-mer".
** When Stewie picks up a board game:
-->'''Stewie:''' "Dare card: Have her do a strip tease and see how long it takes you to get a 'bonner'. What's a 'bonner'?"
** Again with Stewie in a bathtub:
-->'''Stewie:''' "In fact, the only thing that would make me happier is would is would be if this tub was filled with yoggurt. Can you can you get me some yoggurt? Is the yoggurt shop still open? Is there is there some place to dial up yoggurt?"
** And of course the famous "Cool Hwhip" joke from "Barely Legal" which became a Main/RunningGag for the series.
*** Relatedly, while Stewie can pronounce [[Creator/WilWheaton "Wil" and "Wheaton"]] properly, when he puts them together it becomes "Hwil Hwheaton."
* Done in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'', where Penny gains a case of AcquiredSituationalNarcissism and insists on "Penn-AY".
* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' has George Avocados who always corrects the pronunciation to "ah-VAW-ca-dos". It doesn't stick.
* This was done in ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'', too. Jay goes to a fast food restaurant and addresses the clerk by the name on his nametag, "Pizzaface." The clerk of course responds with, "Hey, that's Pizza-fah-CHAY!"
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' features a shifty client named Weezelle. Although he is an actual weasel, he insists that his name be properly pronounced ("''wee-ZEL!''", accent on the third "e") at all times. Naturally, everyone just called him "Weasel". Eventually, this annoys him so much that he refuses to do anymore work for his boss "until you call me by my correct name." His boss, mind you, is the most feared and ruthless crime lord in the city, and has probably killed people for less than that. Clearly, Weezelle's name is ''important'' to him.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' also has a one-shot villain with that name (although he was not a literal weasel -- only a figurative one).
* The german dub of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' spells all character names as of english origin. However in the ''WesternAnimation/DayOfTheDiesels'' song which can be heard after the ending of the movie of the same name, the singer once spells Thomas like a german name (but normal during the rest of it).
* WesternAnimation/TimonAndPumbaa once met a suspicious-looking raccoon named Thief who insists that his name is pronounced "thife" (rhymes with "life").
* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' has the villainous Dr. Hämsterviel. Pronounced HOHM-ster-vheel, although many pronounce it like "hamster wheel". The fact that Hämsterviel is in fact a literal IntelligentGerbil doesn't help the situation. Of course, the actual way to pronounce it in German would be "Hame-ster-feel". The umlaut works in the same way the silent "e" does in English, and in German "v" makes an "f" sound and "w" makes what is in English a "v" sound.
* ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' got one under the [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar radar]] featuring the Ahz-Wee-Pay tribe.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' has a band therapist called "Jonathan Twinkletits" pronounced "Twink-LET-its" instead.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks''
** It's not "Uncle Ruckus", it's "Uncle Ruckuu". [[BlatantLies Because it's French.]]
** Also an inversion: Robert is pulled over by one Officer Douche. Despite being high, Robert has the presence of mind to call him "Doo-shay." Except the officer's name is pronounced the way it looks.
* There was a {{lampshade|Hanging}} parody in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Margaritaville," starting out with a clerk in a store called ''Sur La Table,'' which he pronounced tāb-lé, and {{running|Gag}} with it the whole episode whenever various words ending in 'able' were used by that character. Which is wrong, since in French (the store's name meaning "on the table") the correct pronunciation is something like "tabla," but with the final ''a''-sound abruptly bitten off (thus, "tabl' ").
* On ''Literature/CliffordTheBigRedDog'', there was a story in which Jetta read Emily Elizabeth's private journal and was led to believe that Emily Elizabeth was going to Hawaii by reading one of her made-up stories. She kept dropping all sorts of hints about Hawaii to Emily Elizabeth, but kept pronouncing it in a really pompous way, with the accent heavily on the second syllable.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'', Doug was trying to impress Patty by trying to look sophisticated and play classical music, only to be shot down by Judy when she corrected him on the pronunciation of the name, Chopin (pronounced SHO-pan).
* In the ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' episode Operation B.R.I.D.G.E. there's a clothing store that sell extremely embarrassing kids' clothing called Les Sissy (It's pronounced Sis-SAY)
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E26TheBestNightEver "The Best Night Ever"]], Pinkie Pie tries to adapt to an upper class party.
-->'''Pinkie Pie:''' Ooooh. They don't want to party. These ponies want to par-TAY!
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' uses the "Fra-Gee-Lay" pronunciation joke.
* An accidental instance of this happened in ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'', when a LittlestCancerPatient accidentally got into Superjail, the resident pyro reads her diagnosis on her hospital bracelet and mistakes it for her name, calling her 'San-ser'.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'' had Goofy taking a class at the local community center to learn how to be a mime. His instructor, who spoke with an affected New England-type accent, insisted on pronouncing the word "mimes" as "meems" (which, in his defense, ''is'' the correct pronunciation in French, with the exception of the ''s'' being {{s|tealthPun}}ilent).
* In ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMax'', a character is named "Fatso" but insists on his name being pronounced "Fah-ZO", as the T is silent.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', when the Titans meet Kole and Gnarrk, Cyborg calls him "Narrk" (which is technically the correct way of pronouncing it). Everybody corrects him that it is pronounced "Guh-narrk", much to Cyborg's confusion.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' gives us the Dathomirian Nightbrother Savage Opress, with the first part of his name being pronounced "Sa-VAHJ" and the last part being pronounced just like "oppress". When a bounty hunter reads Savage's wanted poster, he mispronounces his name as "Sa-vidge (just like "savage") Oh-priss".
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''; the two {{Jerkass}} detectives in Season 2 pronounce Mako's name as "May-Ko" (like the shark) instead of "Mah-Ko" (like [[Creator/{{Mako}} the late actor]]) when making fun of him.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AllHailKingJulien'', everyone mispronounces "[[SeldomSeenSpecies fossa]]" as "foosa". It's understandable for King Julien, as his syntax is notably convoluted, but the other lemurs have no excuse.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** In the episode "Squid Plus One" Squidward gets an invitation to a party where he can invite one guest. The invitation says "Squidward Tentacles plus one" which he pronounces as "Ploo-zon-ay" and figures the sender got his name wrong with extra words tacked on.
** Of course there is [=SpongeBob=]'s pronunciation of "karate" as "ka-ra-TAY", which is actually accurate in terms of vowel usage, but still sounds off to some.
* Creator/HannaBarbera
** Of course there is who else, WesternAnimation/YogiBear and his pronunciation of "picnic basket" as "'''pic'''-a-'''nic''' basket".
** Mr. Jinks of ''WesternAnimation/PixieDixieAndMrJinks'' usually refers to mice as "meeces." This was once lampshaded in "Plutocrat Cat" when the two mice go to live with a rich cat...
--->'''Rich Cat:''' My dear fellow, the word is ''mice'', not "meeces."\\
'''Mr. Jinks:''' Meeces, schmeeses!
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'' Dudley Puppy gets a letter from a new nemesis called the Chameleon, but he mispronounces his name as "Cham-a-lee-on" at first.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''
** In the episode "The Five Days of F.L.A.R.G." Mark Chang and later Wanda mispronounced "appendix" as "app-pen-dix". Cosmo is the one to correct Wanda with the correct pronunciation of the word.
** In the episode "App Trap" Cosmo tries to get Timmy to use his can of minestrone as a smart phone, which he calls the latest "mine-strone soh-oup" model.
* On an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', Prunella mentions she feels like a character named Persephone in a popular new book. She pronounces it exactly as spelled saying "purse-e-phone". A nearby Mr Ratburn corrects her with "Per-seph-o-nee". She later corrects her friend Marina who was pronouncing it the same way.
** It should be noted the books in question are parodies of the Harry Potter series and Prunella's mispronunciation of Persephone is a reference to how a lot of people often mispronounced Hermione when the series first gained popularity.
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueAction'' takes after ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' in using "Fal-cone" instead of "Fal-cone-e" to pronounce Carmine Falcone's last name.
* ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw'':
-->'''[[SitcomArchnemesis Elliot]]''': Besides, there's only [[TheJinx one person]] in this town I need to stop, and [[MetaphorIsMyMiddleName his middle name is "Danger."]]\\
'''[[AudienceSurrogate Zack]]''': Is that true?!\\
'''[[UnfazedEveryman Melissa]]''': ''(scoffs)'' No--it's pronounced "Dawn-jé."\\
'''[[ThePollyanna Milo]]''': It's my grandmother's maiden name.
* Used in the ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'' episode "Pirated Away," when [[{{Malaproper}} Captain Quivers]] identifies himself and his crew as "pih-rah-tees."
-->'''Sofia''': I think he means pirates.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Bebe (pronounced "Bay-Bay", not "Bee-Bee") Stevens definitely qualifies.
** Used when the Latino-American David Rodriguez comes to South Park Elementary; Cartman uses the English pronunciation of the name, while David keeps telling him he'd rather his name be pronounced in the Latino way, which is 'Dah-veed'. The other students oblige, but Cartman keeps calling him David just to annoy him.
* The ''WesternAnimation/TwoStupidDogs'' episode "Trash Day" has the Little Dog at one point trying to barter with the Big Dog over a discarded toilet seat, offering him a vase as a trade. The Little Dog pronounces it with a long "a" sound, as "vayse." But the Big Dog insists he wants the toilet seat, and that it's pronounced with a short "a" sound, as "vahse." Both dogs argue over the pronunciation of "vase" for a while ("Vayse!" "Vahse." "Vayse!" "Vahse.") But the argument ends when the vase ends up broken from their fighting.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' did something very much like the above example in "Powerpuff Bluff," when two of the male criminals disguised ([[PaperThinDisguise rather crudely]]) as the Powerpuff Girls notice a vase, and the one disguised as Blossom points out "Look at this vase!" using the long "a" sound. The crook disguised as Buttercup corrects, "I think it's pronounced 'vahse.'" And just like the ''2 Stupid Dogs'' example, the vase ends up smashed, when the first crook says "I think it's pronounced... 'broken!'" and deliberately breaks it.
* While Uranus is often pronounced as "your anus", the characters in ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'' insist it is called "your-eh-nus", which is actually the correct way to pronounce it, making this a weird example of the trope.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Derby [pronounced "DAR-bee"] in ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}''. Which is how you pronounce the horse race, the city, or half of the county Derbyshire (DAR-bee-shur) in England.
* Charmles in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'' refers to himself as "Sharm-LAY". He's the only one who does -- everyone calls him "CHARM-ulz", or [[PrinceCharmless Charmless]] when he's not looking. Even his own father.
* The character of Dudley Cholmondely in ''VideoGame/BrokenSword: The Sleeping Dragon''. His name is pronounced "Chumley"; justified in that "Cholmondely" is actually pronounced that way (see the ''Discworld'' example above).
* ''VideoGame/{{Qix}}'' = "Kicks". On the other hand, Japan pronounces it "Quicks" when written in katakana
* Taito (the company that released the above game as much as other games for other system such as the UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem) is pronounced "TIE-to", and not "tay-to".
* ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' is pronounced either "ease" or to rhyme with "peace" (or "yeece" as in the localization of ''Ys VI''). ''Not'' "wise". (The spurious apostrophe the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem version added doesn't help at all.)
* ''VideoGame/{{Faxanadu}}'' is pronounced "fah-ZAN-uh-doo", not "faks-AN-uh-doo", being short for Famicom Xanadu.
* The obscure adventure ''Gene Machine'' features the main character Pierce Featherstonehaugh, pronounced [[spoiler:Fanshaw]]. The phonetic variant is used for most of the game. The name is TruthInTelevision, though.
* ''VideoGame/{{Galaga}}'' (GAL-a-ga), similarly to how you would pronounce "Gallagher" (the comedian best known for his "Sledge-O-Matic" routine)
* Because of Japanese double consonants, ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' is pronounced "Tek-KEN", and not "TEK-ken".
** Unlike English and many other languages, Japanese doesn't have stressed syllables (the "emphasis" part) or vowel reduction. However, it does have [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accent pitch accent]] ("stressed" syllables are a downstep in the pitch of the sentence). In the English pronunciation of a Japanese word, it's natural to render pitch accent as stress.
* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'': It's not "Zeebs", or "Zeebees", or even "Zeebus", it's "ZEH-behs".
* In ''VideoGame/MegaMan8'', because there's NoPronunciationGuide, the characters mistakenly calls Bass as the fish. Of course, [[MemeticMutation it's actually BASE.]]
* Inverted with the villain of the third season of Creator/TelltaleGames ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice''. He's an albino gorilla from space named General Skun-ka'pe (skoon-KAH-pay), so naturally our heroes call him "Skunk Ape". However, everyone understands who they mean, and no one corrects them.
* ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'' has several:
** "Caim" rhymes with "time", not "aim".
** "Leonard" is "LAY-o-nard", not "Len-nerd".
** "Arioch" is "ARE-ee-ohsh", not "AIR-ee-ock".
** "Seere" is "SAIR-ay".
** "Furiae" is "furry-eye", which is the actual Latin pronunciation, but most English-speakers are probably inclined to think "Fury, eh?".
** The name of the protagonist of ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}} 2'' (Nowe) is pronounced "No-Way".
* ''VideoGame/NieR'' has Kainé, whose name is pronounced Kai-Nay, not Kain. There's a reason why there's an accent above the E.
* ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland''
** In the series, there's a running joke about the pronunciation of Guybrush Threepwood's name. It should be noted that most of the people who pronounce Guybrush's name wrong are doing it on purpose as a [[MaliciousMisnaming way of showing their disrespect for him]]. ''Rise of the Pirate God'' even lampshades it.
-->'''Galeb:''' Don't worry, Carniferouswood--\\
'''Guybrush:''' Oh, come on, that doesn't even sound like "Threepwood."
** Also, in ''VideoGame/TalesOfMonkeyIsland'' the Marquis De Singe (and Joaquin D'Oro) pronounces his own name as "''deh SANJ''" (with the short "a" sound in "apple"), and the Voodoo Lady and Hemlock [=McGee=] pronounce the name as "''day SAHNJ''" (with the "a" pronunciation in "father"). Guybrush and Morgan [=LeFlay=], on the other hand, pronounce De Singe's name poorly, coming out only as "''deh SIHNJ''", like the English word "singe". It's possible this may have been them pulling a MaliciousMisnaming with him, though. The correct pronunciation, incidentally, is how he says it himself, and it means "of Monkey" (not "of the Monkey", that would be "du Singe") in French.
** ''Tales'' also has every single character pronounce "La Esponja Grande" with "esponja" pronounced with a J sound (es-pon-JA). Not until the ''very end of the final episode'' does Elaine FINALLY say "Actually, it's pronounced 'es-pon-HA' with an 'H' sound at the end?"
** And of those who pronounce the word "Caribbean" as "''CA-ri-BEE-an''", only Morgan pronounces it as "''cuh-RIH-bee-an''".
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}''
** It's a good thing the game has voice acting, otherwise everyone would be pronouncing the store name "Junes" as "Joonz". The correct pronunciation is "Joo-NESS".
** Similarly, Rise is pronounced "Ree-Say" rather than rhyming with "Size".
** In ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'', Guybrush misreads [[FortuneTeller Madame Xima]]'s name as "Madame X-ima", making it sound like "eczema" (the skin condition). She quickly corrects him (ZEE-mah), and he sticks to the correct pronunciation after that.
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': Ann Tamaki's first name isn't pronounced as "An", the traditional English speaking way (rhyming with can, man, tan, etc), instead it puts heavy emphasis on the "A" sound causing it to be pronounced "Ah-n" (rhymes with on, wrong, gone, etc).
* The MMORPG ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' has lots of odd names that had remained unexplained in terms of pronunciation for numerous years; forcing players to use whatever they considered correct. When the game developers begun to explain the REAL pronunciations, needless to say, people got a little confused. It all came down to the creation of an actual official ''pronunciation guide'' to patch up the confusion. Good example is the infamous "Ardougne" pronunciation. "Arr-DOYN"!
* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': It's "Ay-la", not "Eye-la" (the katakana for her name is Eira).
* It's ''VideoGame/{{Ninja G|aiden}}UY-den'' not ''Ninja GAY-den''. This is explained by WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd, who also explains that it's REE-you (as a single syllable), not RYE-you. Which is the name of both Ninja Gaiden's main character and the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' character.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': It's pronounced Tee-dus.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'': Cecil is officially pronounced "Seh-sul"[[note]]which is the British pronounciation of the name[[/note]].
* The title of the Creator/{{Toaplan}} shmup ''V-V'' is pronounced "V five" according to the furigana.
* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', Caesar is pronounced in the Latin form "Kai-Sarr" by members of Caesar's Legion while most other characters simply call him by the Anglicanized See-Zer.
* Chinese names tend to be mispronounced. Even ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' and other games set in that period get them wrong.
** In ''Dark Cloud'', which predates ''Dynasty Warriors 3'', "Xiao" can be pronounced as "Zya-oh", "Zee-oh", "Tsia-oh" or "Tsia-ow". It was supposed to be called "Shao". Didn't help that it's an uncommon name for an Asian group, which calls it "Tsia-ow".
** In ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'':
*** Cao Cao and Cao Pi were called "Cow Cow" and "Cow Pi" until ''Dynasty Warriors 6'' or ''Warriors Orochi'', while it's supposed to be called "Tsao Tsao" and "Tsao Pi". The same also applies to all other names beginning in the "c" constant, such as Xingcai (said as "Shing-kai" in the past, but now correctly said as "Shing-tsai").
*** Lu Bu is pronounced with "Lu" as in the "Loo" in loose, when a closer pronunciation would be "Lwee"[[note]]think German ü[[/note]] Bu.
** ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' has several characters with Chinese-sounding names that are all pronounced wrong. (Liu Kang, Quan Chi, Shang Tsung, Kung Lao) For instance, "Liu Kang" is pronounced "Loo Kayng" when it would actually be pronounced closer to "Lee-oo Kah-ng."
*** This extends to Japanese, as well: Raiden's name is pronounced "Ray-den", as opposed to "Rye-den", while Shirai-Ryu is pronounced "Sher-rye Rye-yoo", as opposed to "Shee-rye R'yoo".
** ''Franchise/StreetFighter'':
*** Aside from the aforementioned Ryu example; for a long time, Chun-Li's name was mispronounced as "Chuh-n-Lee". The actual pronunciation would be more like "Choon-Lee".
*** Fei Long often is said as "Fay Lah-ng". The "long" part is actually said as "Loh-ng".
*** This also extends to the Lee brothers, Yun and Yang (said as "Yuh-n" and "Yaa-ng"). It's actually "Yoon" and "Yah-ng".
*** This also goes to Zangief, usualy mispronounced as Zan-Geef, instead of the official pronounciation of Zahn-Gyeff.
*** Zangief's name pronunciation has arguably mutated within the franchise, as the English voice actors now stick to Zan-Geef.
*** FANG's name can cause confusion like this, as it clearly alludes to a poisonous fang, but the voice actors consistently pronounce it the appropriate Chinese way.
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' suffers from this. Examples include: 'Qara' pronounced as 'KWAH-rah'; 'Katalmach' pronounced as 'Ka-tal-MAK' (where it should be pronounced 'Ka-tal-MAKH' or 'Ka-tal-MACH'); 'Kalach-Cha' pronounced as 'Kalak-CHA' where it should be pronounced as 'Kalach-CHA'...
* ''VideoGame/BeyondTwoSouls'': Jodie Holmes's NonHumanSidekick[=/=]{{Poltergeist}} companion goes by the name Aiden; Jodie constantly pronounces it "eye-den" rather than the usual "ay-den."
* [[OrSoIHeard Apparently]], for the longest time, some people pronounced "Creator/{{Sega}}" as "Sea-ga". This is due to the fact that in Italy, it ''was'' (and still is) pronounced "Sea-ga"; this is because in Italian, "Say-ga" is slang for the act of [[ADateWithRosiePalms male masturbation]], what probably helped people pronounce it correctly was the classic intro to ''VideoGame/{{Sonic the Hedgehog|1}}''.
* In ''Videogame/FarCry4'', protagonist Ajay Ghale's name is either pronounced "A.J. Gale" by westerners such as Ajay himself or "Ah-Jay Gah-Lay" by the local Kyrati people.
* Clone from ''VideoGame/AtelierEschaAndLogyAlchemistsOfTheDuskSky'' is pronounced clo-ney. They could've added an accent on the e...
* In ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'', when the party reaches Florem, Edea talks about keeping up with the latest trends and what it means to be "fashionaaaabluh", insistently correcting her allies every time they say "fashionable" instead.
** This also applies to one of the lead characters, Agnes. Despite its spelling, all of the other characters pronounce her name Ahn-yes instead of Ag-ness
*** Given that it's written with a grave accent on the E (Agnès), it's probably meant to be pronounced Ahn-yes as in French.
* In ''Videogame/{{Warframe}}'', the V in [[MadScientist Alad V's]] name is pronounced as the letter rather than being a roman numeral, meaning that his name is "Alad Vee" and not Alad the Fifth.
* [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] is pronounced "Mar-ee-o", not "Mary-o", that's how you pronounce the name in Italian, the fact that many games with voice acting like ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' say the correct pronunciation didn't help much.[[note]]Nevertheless, "Mary-o" is legitimate, albeit not often used, alternate pronunciation of the name (similar to "gigawatt" vs. [[Film/BackToTheFuture "jig-awatt"]]).[[/note]]
** "Bros." is an abbreviated spelling of "Brothers", similar to how "Mr." is short for "Mister". Despite this, a considerable number of people have decided that "Bros." is simply the plural form of "bro". Most people who do so are well aware that Mario and Luigi are brothers, but are inclined to go with "Broes", possibly just to eliminate the second syllable. However, the official pronunciation has always been "Super Mario Brothers". The fact that productions like Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow and the [[Film/SuperMarioBros 1993 film]] (which always used the "brothers" pronunciation) haven't been relevant in years and are unknown to most younger fans hasn't helped much.
*** Unsurprisingly, "Broes" has crept its way into the VideoGame/SuperSmashBros fandom.
** Lots of people, for whatever reason, seem to mispronounce Bob-omb. It's literally just the words "Bob" and "omb"[[note]]Bomb minus the letter "B".[[/note]] put together. However, plenty of people will instead say something along the lines of "Buh-Bomb". Even the cartoons get the pronunciation wrong.
* Creator/{{Ubisoft}} is pronounced "YOO-bee-soft", not "OO-bee-soft". Confirmed with their online service, called UPlay (pronounced "you play", not "oo-play").
* In ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'', Sein is pronounced like the German verb to be or "sine wave", not the French word for breast or the river running through Paris.
* It's extremely common for people to mispronounce ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'' character Rottytops are ''Rooty''tops. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnm_xcwupOQ Not even Shantae's]] ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnm_xcwupOQ voice actor in Pirate's Curse]]'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnm_xcwupOQ was above this.]]
* ''{{Franchise/Pokemon}}''. It's "Pok-ay-mon", not "Pok-ee-mon" or "Poke-uh-mon." Although even the Anime dubs are inconsistent on it.
* One conversation between Diya and Min in ''VisualNovel/ButterflySoup'', includes them making fun of a substitute teacher for pronouncing Diya's name "DIE-ya" instead of "DEE-ya".
* From ''Videogame/MogekoCastle'' we have Moge-ko, who is the ruler of a entire floor of Mogeko's. The only difference between her name and the rest of the castle is that hyphen in her name.
* From ''Videogame/{{Deltarune}}'' we have the first shopkeeper, Seam, whose name is pronounced "Shawm". He lampshades it if you ask him about himself.
-->'''Seam:''' The name's Seam. Pronounced "Shawm."
* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles4:'' Crymaria is pronounced [=CrimAIRia=], not Cry Maria. Colonel Walz calls her "Mary."
* In ''VideoGame/TheLastRemnant'', one of the major characters is David, marquis of a small nation. His subjects all address him as Lord "Dah-veed", although Rush just calls him Dave.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', there are a few:
** Caspar is pronounced "cas-PAR", not "cas-per".
** Mercedes is "mer-seh-des", not "mer-say-dees" (as in the car company).
** The "g" in the name Ferdinand von Aegir is silent, and it is pronounced "eyre".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* An episode of ''Series/AmericasFunniestHomeVideos'' featured a young boy complaining to his father who is insistent on pronouncing carrots as "cay-rots".
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': The Buffybot pronounces Giles as "Guy-els", with Giles bemoaning the fact that Spike didn't even bother to program his name correctly.
* Hyacinth Bucket from ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances'' insists that it's pronounced Boo-KAY. "The '''Bouquet''' residence! The lady of the house speaking!!" Note that her husband always pronounces it Bucket when she's not around. Well, the sisters are all named after flowers... Apparently inspired by a real-life acquaintance of Roy Clarke who insisted their surname ("Bottom") was pronounced "Bo-TOME".
* In an episode of ''Series/HappyEndings'', the gang meets their old friend Shershow's fiance, and this exchange occurs.
-->'''Melinda:''' I am so happy that you guys were able to make it on such short notice. I'm leaving next week to deliver solar ovens to Hondooras.\\
'''Max:''' Wow, Shershow, you hit it out of the park. She's both beautiful and says Honduras the fancy way.
* On the BBC's ''Wings'', Lieutenant Gaylion's surname is pronounced GAY-lee-un. For much of the first season, Captain Triggers refers to him as gay-lion, pronouncing it as though he were a predatory cat that prefers the company of other male predatory cats.
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', after a family embarrassment, Niles Crane's wife Maris tries to save face by adding an accent to the "e" of her name on her memos, so that her name is read as Maris Crah-NAY.
* ''Series/TheColbertReport''
** The show's title is pronounced "Cole-BARE RE-pore." In one of the [[RealTrailerFakeMovie early]] [[{{Defictionalization}} ads]] for the show, Colbert tries to justify it by saying, [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch "It's French, bitch!"]] Colbert himself has said that the pronunciation is a way for us to tell the difference between his real personality (by pronouncing the T) and his stage personality (not pronouncing it). However, in reality, his family used both pronunciations; Colbert had started using the alternative (T-less) pronunciation in college, using it before, during, and after the show's run.
** Inverted when one segment included Stephen's intern, Ja-Mès. ("It's pronounced 'James'.")
* ''Series/RedDwarf'', "Kryten":
-->'''Rimmer:''' You always put the emphasis on "Rim" in "Rimmer". Makes me sound like a lavatory disinfectant.\\
'''Lister:''' Well, what do you want me to call you? "Rim-MAIR"!?
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'':
** A recurring doctor with a prominent goatee often gets called "Dr. Beardface". It seems like an insulting nickname, but his name is actually Dr. Beardfacé. He is, however, annoyed by having his name mispronounced.
--->'''Beardfacé:''' It's "Beard-fa-SAY", dammit!
** Keith Dudemeister's last name is from German, properly pronounced "Doo-de-MY-ster". Keith and Elliot have both said it means "Master of Dudes".
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''
** One sketch involved a couple trying to decide on a name for their expected child; the husband ends up rejecting practically every common name because it's too prone to being mocked. It's revealed at the end of the sketch that the husband's name is "Asswipe"... pronounced "ahs-WEE-pay".
** Another sketch has Creator/JonHamm and singer Michael Bublé doing a TV spot for their new restaurant that serves "fine pork dishes and sparkling Champagne," Hamm & Bublé. Jon pronounces Michael's last name as "BUH-blee." Michael corrects him: "Actually, it's pronounced BOO-blay," but Jon counters, "Well, boo-BLAY doesn't work, so now it's pronounced BUH-blee."[[note]]While Jon is busy delivering an order to a table, Michael explains (to the tune of "Haven't Met You Yet") that a drunk Jon kidnapped him and he's being forced to participate in this venture.[[/note]]
** In the "Celebrity Jeopardy!" sketches, the contestants (though almost always Creator/SeanConnery) frequently and humorously misreads the categories into various dirty sayings, such as reading "An Album Cover as "Anal Bum Cover" and "Let It Snow" as "Le Tits Now".
* ''Series/ThirtyRock''
** Dr. Spaceman (who, as it turns out, is a certified -- or rather uncertified -- quack) pronounces his name "spa-CHEM-en". So does everyone else except resident {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Tracy Jordan, who calls him "Doctor Space-man."
** Subverted later on with Jeffrey Weinerslav, a human resources sexual harassment councilor, who assures Liz that his name is not "Weiner-slahv" but "Weiner-slave", and another time, when Liz called an NBC page "Ah-mohn-daah", only to be corrected "It's... Amanda".
** In another episode, Jack says he can't remember the name of the black kid on ''Series/{{Community}}''. Liz informs him it's Don-AHLD Glover.
** Jenna's husband Paul L'astnamé.
** At one point Toofer gets put in the writers' punishment corner because he said, "Time to end the char-ahd and adjust my shed-ule to buy a new vahse."
* Rik Mayall's character on ''Series/TheNewStatesman'', Alan Bastard, spells his surname "b'Stard" just to make sure everyone pronounces it the way he prefers.
* Another of Rik Mayall's characters insists that his surname "Twat" is pronounced "Thwaite". [[http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Twatt That's actually a real surname/pronunciation...]]
* In the first season of ''Series/YesMinister'', Jim Hacker's political adviser Frank Weisel (WYE-zel) is repeatedly (deliberately) addressed by Sir Humphrey and Bernard as "Mr Weasel".
* ''Series/FamilyMatters'':
** Mr. Looney ("Loo-NAY. It's French."). This one actually ''would'' be pronounced like that in French,[[note]]just like WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse is pronounced "Mee-kay,"[[/note]] though the French dub simply uses the US pronunciation for all names anyway.
** Steve Urkel's "cool" transformation, Stefan Urquelle.
** Remember the episode where the whole family goes to Disneyland? Eddie and Waldo get lost along the way and wind up in Canada, which Waldo claims is called "Kin-a-dah".
* ''Series/GreenWing'':
** Guy Secretan went to Whiteleaf Public School, but call it that and face his wrath: it's pronounced Wit-lehf.
** Also appears with the suspiciously rare sport Guyball (pronounced Gee-ball) which may or may not be completely made up by Guy.
* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' mentions the "estate agent pronunciation" of the Cardiff district of Splott. "Splowe" is a reasonable approximation of the estate agent pronunciation.
* ''Series/SummerHeightsHigh'' Jamie Louise King adds an apostrophe to her name “in year 8”, and becomes Ja’mie. Pronounced “Juh-May”
* In ''Series/BetweenTheLions'', Dr Nitwhit expressly prefers "nit-WHITE".
* Warren Buffett has appeared several times on ''Series/AllMyChildren'' since the early 90s. Opal always pronounces it Warren BOO-fay.
* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' has two recurring characters who play to this trope. The first (and definitely the most memorable) was Doctor Vink ("with a ''vvvuh'', ''vvvuh''!") who was constantly referred to as "Doctor Fink". The other (and more in line with the trope) was Sardo, who would constantly berate people for emphasizing his name's first syllable, as well as adding the honorific ("It's Sar''do''! No "mister", accent on the ''do''!"). The two actually met in one episode (and were [[HoYay surprisingly slashy]]...).
* Manservant Neville from ''Series/TheMiddleman'' (pronounced "m'nSERvant").
* Shaun Micallef played with this once in a sketch about Dracula: ''(heavy Romanian accent)'' "It is actually pronounced, Dra-coo-la."
* The "J.A.K.Q." in ''Series/JAKQDengekitai'' is pronounced "Jacker".
* Bertram Wooster, from ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'', always has his name pronounced like Birdie Wooster (rhyming with rooster) by the American characters on the show. (Usually British actors pretending to be American.)
* ''Series/SimonAndTheWitch'': Lady Fox-Custard, pronounced "Faulkes-Coustard".
* ''Series/{{QI}}'':
** Parodied in one episode; after Rich Hall suggested the existence of a town called "Satanismymaster-on-Rye", Bill Bailey claimed that the correct pronunciation was "Simster".
** Another episode had Lee Mack genuinely mispronouncing Creator/JKRowling's surname to rhyme with howling, with Stephen correcting him by saying "It's 'Rowling' like 'bowling'." Lee turns this into a running gag, suggesting that he and Adam should go "boweling" later
* ''Series/ICarly'':
** A one-shot character name's was not Susie, it was Su-ZAY.
** The Jack Black character in "iStart a Fan War", absent the long-final-e pronunciation, would have been called "Aspartame".
* One episode of ''Series/TheNanny'' had Maxwell Sheffield pronouncing Fran Fine's surname as "fee-NAY" in an attempt to impress his grandmother.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'':
** Barney's obvious alias of "Jack Package" when he visits the matchmaker's is given a paper-thin disguise by pronouncing it "pack-aahj".
** "Dear Ted; It's 'encycloPEdia,' not 'encycloPAYdia.' Why must you always pronounce things in the most pretentious way possible? It makes you sound douchey, and that's 'douchey', not 'douCHAY.'"
* The title of the New Orleans-set HBO series ''Series/{{Treme}}'' is pronounced "Tre-MAY", and is based on a real place in TheBigEasy.
* An ad for ''Series/{{Psych}}'' had Gus find a number for "Dr. Kissyface" on Shawn's cell phone. "It's Dr. Kissy-FAH-chay," Shawn insists. At the end of the ad, Gus has called the number in disbelief, only to hang up in embarrassment when he gets a receptionist cheerfully answer, "Dr. Kissy-FAH-chay's office."
* Grunchlk, a character in two episodes of ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', as well as the Made-For-TV movie ''Peacekeeper Wars''. Despite stating several times that it's pronounced "GROON-shlick," the crew still pronounces it wrong; probably because they don't care for him.
** One of Crichton's hats is his utter inability (or unwillingness) to pronounce alien names correctly. This only serves to enforce the "dumb human" stereotype many have of him, despite the fact that he's easily the smartest person on the ship (he has a degree in astrophysics and designed and built ''Farscape One''). At least nobody tries to pronounce his name as "Kreechton", but that would require the aliens to be able to read English.
* In ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'', there is a sketch about a man whose name is spelled "Raymond Luxury Yacht", but is actually pronounced "Throatwobbler Mangrove". In typical Python style, this is a parody, and the man is subsequently mocked and humiliated by the frustrated interviewer.
* On ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', Maeby convinces her prospective boyfriend, Steve Holt, that her mom is actually a man. She then buys her mother a shirt, with "Shemale" emblazoned across the chest. As her mom sees it, Maeby responds, "It's a she-mah-lay!"
** Tobias is a psychoanalyst/therapist. Buster was not put at ease to learn that it's pronounced "uh-NAL-ra-pist!"
* An example on the earlier ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': in Doctor Pulaski's first episode, she calls Data "Data", with a short A (dah-tah). He corrects her, as it is "Data" with a long A (day-tah). She asks what the difference is. He replies "One is my name, the other is not." Which is a DevelopmentGag, since in the original series bible, the "correct" pronunciation was the other way around.
* One of the jokes on ''Series/KathAndKim'' involved the "correct" pronunciation of "Chardonnay" as "CAR-d'nay", because "it's French: the H is silent".
* In ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'':
--> '''Alex:''' Hi, I'm Alex. What's your name?\\
'''Paul:''' Paul [pronounces it as Pao-ul]\\
'''Alex:''' Oh, that's a cool name! How do you spell it?\\
'''Paul:''' P-A-U-L.\\
'''Alex:''' ''(confused)'' ...Isn't that just Paul?\\
'''Paul:''' It's Pao-ul!
* ''Series/{{Friends}}''
** Phoebe Buffay[[note]]pronounced Fee-bee Boo-FAY; ironically, not once did her name get mispronounced[[/note]] is trying to get Monica to reproduce her grandmother's cookie recipe. Just when they're starting to give up, Phoebe mentions the name of the person who originally gave her grandma the recipe -- Neslay Toulouse -- and that's when Monica realizes that Grandma Buffay's "secret recipe" is actually Nestle Tollhouse cookies, with Phoebe initially criticizing Monica for "butchering the French language" after it's pointed out. In actual fact, Nestlé is a German name rendered in French (the firm is based in a French-speaking part of Switzerland and was founded by a man born in Frankfurt on the Main, Germany (as Heinrich Nestle (no accent) 1814, Henri Nestlé after 1839). Phoebe's pronunciation of "Nestlé" is almost correct, the "t" should not be silent though.
** In a different episode, Joey pretends to own the Porsche parked right outside their apartment building, and every time someone says Porsche, he corrects them "It's por-SHUH!".
* In ''Series/{{Community}}'', Britta insists the proper pronunciation for bagel is "BAG-uhl". This is in a Minnesota accent.
** Speaking of Britta, Shirley had a tendency to emphasize the second syllable when saying her name ("Bri-TAH").
* In the ''Series/InLivingColor'' skit "Spike's Joint", Spike Lee (Tommy Davidson) tells his sister Joie (T'Keyah Crystal Keymah) that now that they're back in Brooklyn, her name is pronounced "Joy", not "Jwah".
--> "It's not Jac-KAY (Jackée), all right? It's JACKIE. It's not Shah-DAY (Sade), all right? It's SADIE! What you gonna call me next, Spi-kay?"
* Captain George Mainwaring in the British Sitcom ''Series/DadsArmy'', whose name is pronounced "Man-er-ing". This is lampshaded in later series when the Welsh Pvt. Cheeseman joins the platoon, as he pronounces the captain's name phonetically - "Mane-ware-ing". As does Mainwaring's rival Captain Square, much to Mainwaring's frustration. The snobbish, upper-class Square may be doing this deliberately to emphasise Mainwaring's lower-middle-class background.
* Dippe from ''Series/PJKatiesFarm''. It's pronounced DEE-PAY.
* In the third and final episode of the prequel ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses'' ''Rock and Chips'', "The Frog and the Pussycat", Freddie Robdal manages to allay Joannie Trotter's (perfectly correct) suspicion that a diamond ring in a box from "Margate Jewellers" is [[FellOffTheBackOfATruck stolen from a jeweler's shop in Margate]] by claiming it is the work of a French jeweler pronounced "Mar-jay".
* Inverted in a sketch on ''Series/TheTwoRonnies'' where one character very carefully pronounces a newcomer's name as 'de Ath', only to be cheerfully told that it is, in fact, pronounced 'Death'.
* The miniseries adaptation of ''Literature/TalesOfTheCity'' includes dialog about the social embarrassment caused by not knowing the traditional correct pronunciation of Beauchamp's name ("beecham").
* Oliver Trask uses this to woo Marissa Cooper in ''Series/TheOC'', pronouncing mojito and crudités with a Spanish and French inflection, respectively.
* Parodied in a sketch on ''Series/ABitOfFryAndLaurie'', featuring a man whose last name is pronounced by dropping an object onto a desk. "It's as it sounds." [[spoiler:It's spelled Nippl-hyphen-e. He's very offended when called "Mr. Nipple."]] Worse, his address (22 ..., King's Lynn) "..." is pronounced by [[spoiler:doing a soft-shoe dance step and [[{{Slapstick}} slapping you in the face]]]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNoS2BU6bbQ Just watch it.]]
* In ''Series/{{Bones}}'', episode "Mayhem on a Cross", crime evidence was found in the possession of a Norwegian black metal band named Skalle (Norwegian for skull). Dr. Brennan keeps correcting co-workers, she insists on "Skall-eh" pronunciation, up to the point where Cam avoids using "skalle" in her sentence, she uses pronoun "they" rather. Hilarious.
** When asked if she speaks Norwegian, Bones claims she knows how to say "skull" in any language.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' two-parter "The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky", it's Son-TAR-ans, not SON-ter-uhns.
* ''Series/DrakeAndJosh''
** Subverted when during a rainstorm, Josh's dad tells off one of a myriad houseguests for pronouncing "touché" with the correct French accent.
--> "It's pronounced TOOSH!"
** In another episode he mispronounces "Capisce" as "Ca-pice"
** In another episode, Drake reads online that a rare pepper is found only in South America, which he pronounces "South Ah-mer-eeka".
** In yet another episode he is unable to pronounce the word "fuselage" read from a manual, coming as close as saying "Fu-sell-ah-gee". In this same episode he keeps pronouncing "cone" as "con".
* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren''
** Kelly meets the man who made her parents' couch. His name is "Mary" but he corrected her, insisting it's "Mar-AY". She then comments about being Bus-AY.
** When she was a weather girl, she pronounced their city as "CHICK-uh-go" and read another Midwestern city as "Street Louis."
** When Kelly tries out for a spokesmodelling gig in "Kelly Bounces Back," the woman running the casting, Miss Beck (played by [[Series/GilligansIsland Tina Louise]]), calls for one of the other girls, "Incense Berkowitz." The girl says it's pronounced "In-SAHNS," and Miss Beck just calls "Next!"
* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' tends to have a field day with this. In ''Film/PumaMan'', Creator/DonaldPleasence's character keeps pronouncing the hero's name as "Pyew-ma" Man, leading to Mike and the Bots to launching into various mocking riffs. As well, the ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' episode has Tom renaming himself "Htom Serveaux", leading Crow to reply in frustration, "Hey, Htom, why don't you hlick me?"
** On a short dealing with winter sports, the announcer says that skiing is correctly pronounced "she-ing" - Joel replies "Yeah? Well, you're full of skit!" Tom reads the title card "Cross Country Sheing Amid Skenes of Winter Magnifishence in Sanada's Shnow-Sovered Playgroundshs!"
* On [[UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} MLB Network's]] show ''Intentional Talk,'' a running gag arises from the multiple ways to pronounce the "Got Heeeeem!"[[note]]an imitation of an excited broadcaster announcing an out[[/note]] segment. Variations have included "Got Him," "Goatem," "Got Hema," Gotta Himma," and many more especially that the segment is now usually preceded by a fan or [=MLB=] player saying the segment's title.
* ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' inverts this in the substitute teacher sketch - a black InnerCitySchool teacher subs in for a class full of suburban white kids, and when taking attendance pronounces every kid's name in overstyled GhettoName fashion, because those are the kinds of names he's used to. For example, "Jacqueline" becomes "J. Kwellen", and "Aaron" becomes "A. A. Ron". He becomes angered when the kids fail to recognize their names being called, and even more so when they correct his pronunciation, thinking they must be pranking him because [[YourNormalIsOurTaboo nobody could ever have such ridiculous sounding names]]. The exception is [[TokenMinority the only black student in the class]], who actually ''does'' have a GhettoName (Timothy, pronounced "Ti-MO-thy").
* In ''Series/{{Sonny With A Chance}}'', Sharona's assistant insists that her name is pronounced "MON-KEY".
* In ''Series/TokumeiSentaiGobusters'', the big[[GreaterScopeVillain (ger?)]] [[BigBad bad]] Messiah's name is pronounced in the English manner (Mes-SIGH-a) instead of the Japanese way (MEH-shi-a).
* And in ''Series/ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger'', Kyoryu Pink's name is Amy, pronounced as Ah-Mee, like Ami from Sailor Moon. This is despite the fact that she's meant to be from America.
* A police officer in ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'' claims that his name is pronounced "[=SNOO=]-[=TAY=]".
* In ''Series/TheITCrowd'' - "The Haunting of Bill Crouse." Moss, on Spanish-themed small-plate dining: "It's pronounced, 'TAPE-ass'."
* ''Series/HorribleHistories'' has recurring character Cliff Whitely, PR agent, who always has to remind people that his name is pronounced "White-LEE" rather than "White-LIE."
* ''Series/NannyAndTheProfessor'': Following the custom mentioned atop this page, Nanny's old friend "Mr. Cholmondeley Featherstonehaugh" pronounces his name "Chumly Fenshaw".
* ''Series/TheAmandaShow'': People call Drake Bell's teen mobster Tony Pajamas "Tony Pa-JAM-uhs." He's quick to correct them by saying, "Pa-JAH-muhs!"
* In an episode of ''[[Creator/DavidLetterman The Late Show with David Letterman]]'', [[Music/{{U2}} Bono]] shared an anecdote regarding an encounter with Sony Bono. The latter told him his name was pronounced "Bo-no" not "Buh-no".
* One ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' episode had a character who insisted his name, Pfeiffer, was actually "Puh-Feiffer" with the P pronounced.
* On the Singaporean parody TV show ''The Noose'', news correspondent Jacques Ooi subverts this by insisting that his first name be pronounced "Jackass".
* In ''Series/StorageWars'', the Harris Twins debate about the pronunciation of the words "badminton" ("bad-min-ton" or "bad-min-tuhn") and Bocce ("Bow-chee" or "Buh-chee").
* In the second "Comics Come Home" stand-up special, Eddie Brill was talking about hockey player Patrick Roy, which is pronounced "Patrick Rwa".
--> '''Eddie''': Your name is "Roy", pal, cut the crap.
* Russel Berger on ''Series/RoyalPains'' pronounces his last name "Ber-jay" in a very posh French accent. Except for [[spoiler:when he gets fired from his job as an interior designer]], in which case he pronounces it like "burger" [[spoiler:until he's given a freelance job, in which case he goes back to the French]].
* On ''Series/That70sShow'', Donna Pinciotti’s last name is always pronounced at ‘pin-see-AW-tee’, while the orthography suggests it should be pronounced ‘pin-CHOT-tee’.
* In earlier seasons of ''Series/TheGoodWife'', Elsbeth Tascioni’s last name was repeatedly mispronounced as ‘tass-see-OH-nee’, and corrected only in season 6 to ‘tash-SHOW-nee’.
* PlayedForLaughs in the Late Night arc of the season 3 of ''Series/{{Louie}}'', while Louie is waiting to meet [[Creator/DavidLynch Jack Dall]], the CBS executive.
--> '''Jack's Receptionist:''' It's pronounced "Dall."\\
'''Louie:''' Dall?\\
'''Receptionist:''' DALL.\\
'''Louie:''' Dall.\\
(''Closeup shot of the receptionist [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment suddenly has]] [[TheOtherDarrin a different actress]]'')\\
'''Jack's Receptionist:''' Dall.\\
'''Louie:''' [[OverlyLongGag Dall]]?
* ''Series/{{Scorpion}}'': In "Rogue Element", Happy [[ImpersonatingAnOfficer uses Cabe Gallow's ID to gain access to crime scene]]. When the cop on duty asks her what kind of name Cabe is, Happy (who is Asian) claims that it's pronounced "Kar-Be" and that it's Korean.
* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' has Ed Helms' character Jack Danger, who insists that it's pronounced "donger".
** From the episode ''Skyfire Cycle'':
-->'''Gina:''' Why is it in Butt-Thumb Iowa?
-->'''Boyle:''' It's pronounced Boot-Hume.
** Also, same episode:
-->'''Jake:''' The Skyfire Cycle: A Bridge to Jerkata.
-->'''Terry:''' Nuh-uh. It's actually pronounced Jerka'A. All the T's in Skyfire are silent.
-->'''Jake:''' This book sounds impossible to read.
* ComicStripLive was mostly just about the comics performing, but one episode had a bit where a fake member of the audience was using a camcorder (A [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PXL-2000 PXL-2000]] used as a prop), noting how he could see right up the host's nose while filming, and the host took a moment to talk to him. The audience member mentioned ROW-DEE-O drive, and was corrected that it was pronounced ROW-DAY-O. Then asked what he'd done recently, the audience member said he was there buying "this VI-DAY-O camera".
* As seen on an episode of ''Tennessee Crossroads'', the proprietor of Richard's Cafe, a creole restaurant in Nashville, pronounces his name "Ri-SHARD", as in the French.
* The original pronunciation of "Jekyll" is a minor plot point in Series/{{Jekyll}}. When Hyde is overwhelmed by Tom Jackman's memories and is trying to master them, he manages to tap into the memories of the original Dr Jekyll. His onlookers don't believe it at first, as this seems impossible. It doesn't help that Hyde describes what he's seeing as if he was watching TV. However, when he asks who "Dr Jee-kill" is, they realise he must really being seeing what he says he is.
* In one episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit,'' a potential victim was reported missing by her boss, named Lavender. When Benson goes to see him for an identification, he corrects her that it's "l'VAN-der," because he's not a flower.
* An episode of ''Series/HowItsMade'' covered ambulances. But instead of pronouncing it "am-byu-luhns", the narrator calls them "am-byu-lance".
* ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' took liberties in how two characters' last names are pronounced:
** Crime boss Carmine Falcone last name is pronounced "Fal-cone". [[Film/BatmanBegins In]] [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries many]] [[WesternAnimation/BatmanYearOne other]] [[VideoGame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries adaptations]] ([[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueAction until 2016]]), it's pronounced "Fal-cone-e".
** Victor Fries is supposed to be German and his last name sound the same as his codename, "Mr. Freeze". In ''Gotham''[='=]s case, it's pronounced as the same as "fries" is in "french fries".
* ''Series/SesameStreet'' had a recurring segment in the late 1990's called "Cooking by the Numbers" hosted by Ruth Buzzi in character as Chef Rutheé. At the start and end of every segment she would correct the announcer by saying her name was "Ru-thay". The exception is the number 9 segment. As Rutheé mispronounces her own name in the middle of freaking out over the over-use of lemons in her recipe, the announcer corrects her with "ru-thay".
* An episode of ''Series/HarryEnfieldAndChums'' had unintelligent regular characters Wayne and Waynetta Slob discussing whether or not to name their baby daughter "Spudulike" (after a UK fast food chain that sells baked potatoes). Waynetta said "It's Spu-DULIE-ke - it's exotic".
* On a 2006 episode of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' a contestant playing Grocery Game for a trip to Australia mispronounced Tidy Cats brand kitty litter as "Titty Cats".
* In an episode of ''{{Series/ALF}}'', ALF is talking to Lynn about how he entered her into a contest. When she's upset by it, he claims that the top prize is a car. She then asks what kind of car, to which he responds:
--> '''ALF''': I'll give you a clue: it starts with "F".
--> Lynn then gets excited and runs off to prepare. Then Kate, her mother, has this conversation with ALF:
--> '''Kate''': ALF, is the car a Ford from this year?
--> '''ALF''': No. It's a "Folkswagen". That's how it's pronounced,[[note]]Incidentally, to a German, it is.[[/note]] right?
* PlayedForLaughs (of course) on ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' when they act out a scene like an ancient Greek drama--Greg immediately addresses Ryan as "Testicles" (pronounced "Test-i-clees").
* ''Series/DeathInParadise'': In "The Perfect Murder", the snooty governor-elect of the neighbouring island Anton Burrage insists that his surname is pronounced "Bur-RAJ". The commissioner, who has known and despised Burrage for decades, says it is pronounced "Borridge" (rhyming with porridge).
* ''Series/GoodnessGraciousMe''
** In the "Going out for an English" sketch, British mangling of foreign names is parodied by their insistence on calling the waiter "Jam-ess".
** Conversely, a recurring sketch features two couples, the Kapoors and Rabindranaths, who are trying to be terribly, terribly British, and insist their names are pronounced "Cooper" and "Robinson".
* An episode of ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' has Frank recounting his former romance with a singer by the name of Shadynasty, who he named a night club after.
-->'''Pedestrian''': (reading the sign) Shady-Nasty?
-->'''Frank''': Sha-Dynasty, asshole!
* ''TheSecretDiaryOfDesmondPfeiffer'': The title character's surname is pronounced "puh-fifer" because "the ''p'' isn't silent."
* On ''Series/{{ER}}'', Luka Kovacs' last name is of course said with Croatian pronunciation as "ko-vatch", not "ko-vacs".
* ''Series/AllThat'' had the character Principle Pimpell who was always annoyed when his name was pronounced "Pimple" (he had one) and mentioned his full name, William Baines Pimpell.
* ''Series/WhodunnitUK'': "Death at the Top" features a suspect named Ian Cockburn, pronounced 'Coburn'. Host Creator/JonPertwee gets some humour out of panellist Patrick Mower prouncing the surname as it is spelled.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in Creator/TerryPratchett's novel ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'': PsychoForHire Mr. Teatime keeps telling people that his name is pronounced "Te-ah-ti-meh". Fortunately, he only considers it ''slightly'' annoying when they get it wrong.
*** Amusingly, many of the cast in Sky One's ''Hogfather'' miniseries find more than one way to pronounce "Te-ah-ti-meh" each, including Marc Warren (Mr. Teatime himself). This is [[{{Woolseyism}} brilliantly translated]] in French: Mr. Teatime is called M. Lheureduthé (which means exactly ''Teatime'') but wants people to pronounce it like "Le Redouté" -- ("The Dreaded").
** Another ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' one, from the ''[[Discworld/TheWeeFreeMen Tiffany Aching]]'' subseries: "It's not 'Earwig', it's 'ah-WIJJ'." As the character is a self-important, etiquette-obsessed social climber, this may be a nod to ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances''.
** Also from the ''Tiffany Aching'' subseries: Roland de Chumsfanleigh, pronounced "Chuffley". Usually footnoted with, "It wasn't his fault."
** One more ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' example: Edward d'Eath. This is a RealLife surname, though. And originally almost always spelled "Death". The surname derives from men who played the character of Death in the medieval mystery plays each English town put on -- the roles were lifelong and hereditary. The "d'Eath" or "d'Ath" construction is meant to make the name sound Norman French (and therefore snooty).
** In ''Discworld/TheScienceOfDiscworld'', the wizards are observing life evolving on the Roundworld, in spite of both absence of essential elements like [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality Narrativium]] and [[OurGodsAreDifferent Deitygen]], and of the constant disasters like comet strikes it faces. They suggest it has a quality that they could describe as a conceptual element that they have a difficulty coming up with a name for; "Bloodimindium" just doesn't sound right, so the Lecturer in Recent Runes suggests changing the accent: "Blod-di-''min''-dium".
* Literature/LordPeterWimsey has two middle names: Death and Bredon. The first is supposed to be pronounced "deeth". This actually matters in one of the novels. In ''Murder Must Advertise'' (and in at least one other story: "A Matter of Taste" perhaps?) he uses the pseudonym Death Bredon and remarks, more or less, "It's usually rhymed with teeth but I find it so much more fun to rhyme it with breath."
* Perhaps inspiring the Count de Money mentioned above, the novel ''Literature/TheRedAndTheBlack'' has a character named the Comte de Thaler (thaler as in [[MeaningfulName the German word that became "dollar"]]) who is a LawyerFriendlyCameo of one of the Rothschilds and whose German name would be pronounced "Thalay" in France.
* From ''Literature/HarryPotter'': {{Word of God}} states that the entire "Her-MY-oh-nee" discussion in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'' came about after Creator/JKRowling learned that fans were having trouble pronouncing Hermione's name. And people still call her "Her-my-nee", probably because its smoother (and because of the films). It's still wrong, but better than pronunciation that was challenged: "Herm-my-own", "Her-mi-own", or even "Her-me-wan". But it is pronounced correctly, as "Her-MY-oh-nee", in [[Film/HarryPotter the films]]. The third syllable is subtle, but present.
* Defied in ''Literature/TheIntruders'' with this little exchange.
-->'''Cassie:''' You say potato...\\
'''Joel:''' And so does everyone else I've ever met.
* In ''Anne of Avonlea'', the second ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' book, the mother of two of Anne's students insists on their last name being pronounced Don''nell'', accent on the second syllable. (She also insists on her son being called St. Clair, although he prefers his birth name of Jacob. Poor kid.)
* In the Victorian novel ''Barchester Towers'' from ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfBarsetshire'' by Creator/AnthonyTrollope, one character has the last name Slope, which the narrator informs us was originally Slop (he is supposed to be the descendant of a character from ''Literature/TristramShandy'') but was changed for "euphony". The literary scholar John Sutherland posited that this may have been a self-deprecating reference to the author's own last name, which minus the "e" is a synonym for whore.
* Inverted by Chris Cwej in the ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novels. His surname should be pronounced "Shvay", but because everyone pronounces it "Kwedge" he's decided to go along with it. In his first appearance, in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresOriginalSin Original Sin]]'', although his new partner Roz Forrester pronounces it ''correctly'', he corrects her.
* In ''Literature/DonJuan'' by Creator/LordByron: In order to rhyme with such phrases as "new one" and "true one", the name Don Juan has to be pronounced "don-DZHU-an". It ''was'' pronounced that way in England during Byron's time.
* Sneaking onto Imperial Center as a battered, partly cybernetic Imperial pilot, [[Comicbook/XWingSeries Wedge Antilles]] goes by Colonel Antar Roat, and has to tell a customs official that it's pronounced Ro-at. The buzz of the voice modulator -- cybernetic, remember? -- makes him all but unintelligible.
* In M.L.N. Hanover's ''Black Sun's Daughter'' series, the main character, Jayné, is used to people mispronouncing her name as "Jane" when it is actually supposed to be pronounced "Zha-nay" in the French manner.
* Creator/PGWodehouse had lots of fun with this. A particularly memorable example would be in ''Indiscretions of Archie'', when the title character explains that his surname, Moffam, is pronounced "Moom". To rhyme with Bloffingham.
* Hubertus Bigend of the ''Literature/BigendBooks'' by Creator/WilliamGibson is another inversion. Bigend is Belgian, and the proper pronunciation is therefore closer to "bayh-jhan", but [[EccentricMillionaire he seems to prefer to go by]] [[MeaningfulName "big end" anyway.]]
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein included an involved discussion of the real life surnames of Tolliver and Talliafero in ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls''. Essentially, the two names are related, but represent three surnames. Spelt the long way and pronounced the short way makes you old money southern. Spelt short and pronounced short makes you white trash. Spelt long and pronounced long makes you a damn carpetbagger yankee scum. [[TruthInTelevision There's some truth to this]], as the name is prominent in the south, and should be pronounced "TOL - i - ver", and spelled "Taliaferro". So spelling it the short way means a period of ignorance, including illiteracy (hence white trash) in one's family history, while pronouncing it long means moneyed ignorance (a Johnny come lately, or one who's not from the south), while the correct pronunciation and spelling mean a long history with the name with no periods of illiteracy (old money).
* Slightly different version in Creator/JohnBrunner's "Coincidence Day" with Madam Senior-Jones. That is her NAME. Her father insisted that HIS family was the ORIGINAL Joneses, and she finally added the "Senior-" to make sure everyone got the point. He also named his daughter "Madam" because it is used to address queens... being unaware of the [[UnfortunateName unfortunate implications]] of the other sense of the word.
* [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Thomas]] [[HornyDevils Raith]] in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' goes by (as [[SnarkKnight Harry]] puts it) "toe-MOSS" while posing as a [[CampGay gay]] French [[ChattyHairdresser hairdresser]].
* Lord Faucet from ''The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place'' insists his name is pronounced ''Fausay".
* Russian translators of the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' went out of their way with this trope in order to KeepItForeign. Up to converting Ivan Vorpatril from Russian (ee-ONE) to Scotsman (EYE-van).
* Surfaces in ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', where one of the Whistlers' neighboring families thinks the Whistlers put on airs by keeping the same pronunciations that the Queens use. Eldest Whistler prefers careful diction. A younger sister who fancies those neighbors imitates them to say, "Nay neighborly of 'er" and is corrected immediately.
* In V.S. Naipul's novel ''The Mystic Masseur'', the main character, born Ganesh Ramsumair, goes from a nobody to an influential politician. At this point, he starts going by G. Ramsay Muir
* In the children's book ''Literature/MrStink'' and its television adaptation, the protagonist's family name is Crumb, but Mrs. Crumb, who is snooty and has political ambitions, insists on pronouncing it "Croome".
* Inverted by Sergeant Thibodeaux in Peter Benchley's ''Q Clearance''. The protagonist pronounces it Tee-boe-doe the first time they meet, only to be corrected: "It's Tibby-doo. Pappy used to say, "'tain't my fault some Frog got into granny's jammies."
* At the start of Stephen Leacock's parody of 18th century English romantic novels "Gertrude the Governess, or Simply Seventeen," we are informed that the setting is Knotacentinum Towers (pronounced Nosham Taws), home of Lord Knotacent (pronounced Lord Nosh)...
-->''[[LampshadeHanging But it is not necessary to pronounce either of these names in reading them.'']]
* In ''Literature/WolfHall'', when Thomas Cromwell first meets Thomas Wriothesley, Wriothsely tells him stuffily to "Call me Risley". After that, there's a running joke in the series wherein Cromwell exclusively refers to Wriothesley as "Call me Risley" or just "Call me" when speaking about him to his protegees, and actually nicknames Wriothesley "Call me".
* Rudyard Kipling explicitly stated that the name of the main character of ''Literature/TheJungleBook'', Mowgli, is supposed to be pronounced such that the first syllable rhymes with "cow." However, most English-speaking people, including the characters of [[Disney/TheJungleBook the Disney version]], pronounce said syllable such that it rhymes with "crow."
* When Creator/LewisCarroll wrote ''Literature/TheHuntingOfTheSnark'', he gave the following about the pronunciation of some words in "Jabberwocky:"
-->"As this poem is to some extent connected with the lay of the Jabberwock, let me take this opportunity of answering a question that has often been asked me, how to pronounce 'slithy toves.' The 'i' in "slithy" is long, as in 'writhe"' and 'toves' is pronounced so as to rhyme with 'groves.' Again, the first 'o' in 'borogoves' is pronounced like the 'o' in 'borrow.' I have heard people try to give it the sound of the 'o' in 'worry.' Such is Human Perversity.
* ''Literature/DaveBarrySleptHere'' has pronunciation guides mostly for the sake of jokes, such as "Versailles ([[GayParee Pa-REE]])."
* In ''Literature/OurMothersHouse'' Charlie Hook insists everyone call him "Charlie 'ook". Everyone does..including the narrator from that point on.
* Creator/GuyDeMaupassant's novel ''Literature/BelAmi'' has a French variation on this that involves more of a spelling change than a pronunciation change. The ruthlessly ambitious newspaper writer protagonist Georges Duroy comes from peasant ancestry and moved to Paris from a provincial Normandy town called Canteleu. After marrying into wealth, he and his wife invent a change to his name that will provide him with greater social position. First, Duroy is changed to Du Roy in order to give him a fake noble surname. Then, Canteleu is changed to the nicer sounding Cantel and added to that, changing the simple George Duroy to the high status Georges du Roy de Cantel. In fact, from that point onward on the novel, Duroy's name is always spelled as Du Roy, and he also uses the name change for some AstroTurf journalism, authoring articles as D. de Cantel, Duroy, and du Roy, all presented as being ostensibly different people.
* In ''Literature/SorcererConjurerWizardWitch'', the society hostess Margery Device pronounces her name "Davis" (Catriona suspects her of doing it just to be obstreperous). Also, there is an institution dating back to the time of the first Queen Elizabeth which is called the Mausoleum, pronounced "by tradition, 'Mouse-o-lay-um' not 'Maws-o-lee-um'".
[[/folder]]

This practice likely originated (at least as far as we know) in the Middle Ages among upper class families who had common surnames and didn't want to be associated with their lowly upbringing. The Featherstone-Haughs for example were named for a poor farming village, so in order to make themselves sound posher, they changed the pronunciation of the name to "Fanshaw".

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossThe8thDimension'': On multiple occasions the Red Lectroid John Bigbooté has his name mispronounced. Lord Whorfin calls him "Bigbooty" and the U.S. Secretary of Defense calls him "Big Boot". Near the end of the movie he actually gets shot by Lord Whorfin because of his angry insistence that his surname be pronounced "big-boo-TAY".
-->'''John Bigbooté''': "It's 'Big-boo-tay!' Tay! Tay! Tay!" [Bang!]
* ''Film/BetterOffDead''. When Lane Meyer (John Cusack) invites the French foreign exchange student from across the street to dinner, his mother, seeking to impress, serves exotic dishes like "Frahnch fries" and salad with "Frahnch dressing". And to drink: Peru! [Perrier]
* Coincidentally in another Cusack film, ''Film/{{Serendipity}}'', his character continues to pronounce mignon as "minion" despite a Frenchman's protests to the contrary.
* In ''Film/TheBankDick'', W.C. Fields once played a character named "Sousé" and had to keep correcting people with "It's pronounced Sous-Ay! Accent grave over the e!"[[note]] Except that would be an accent aigu. The grave is this one, è.[[/note]] The pun doesn't really work nowadays, but back then souse was a slang term for a drunkard.
* ''Film/ItsAGift,'' in which W.C. Fields plays a shop owner Harold Bissonette, "Bis-son-NAY [[HenpeckedHusband in front of the wife]]."
* In ''Film/DeadOfNight'', Creator/MichaelRedgrave's character's surname is pronounced "Freya" by everyone. If it weren't for a close-up of a written statement in which his name is spelt out, we wouldn't know that it's actually spelt "Frere".
* One of the prisoners in ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'' is looking at ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' by "Alexandree Dumbass". He is promptly corrected.
* ''Film/SmallTimeCrooks''. Low class Frenchy (Creator/TraceyUllman) calls crudites "crudd-iytes".
* For the first third or so of Creator/MelBrooks's ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'', Frederick Frankenstein consistently corrects people's pronunciation of his surname: "''Fraun''-kon-shteen." This causes [[TheIgor his assistant Igor]] to insist on "Eye-gor", and calling him "Froderick" instead of Frederick. Ultimately Frankenstein accepts the traditional way of pronouncing his name when he takes up the family trade -- Eye-gor sticks with his.
* Another Creator/MelBrooks example: the protagonist of ''Film/HighAnxiety'' addresses his mentor as Professor Little Old Man (accent on Man), and is corrected: Little-Oldman (accent on Old).
* Yet ''another'' Mel Brooks example: Count [=DeMonet=] DEE-Moe-NAY, not, The Money) in ''Film/HistoryOfTheWorldPartI''. When he's DistractedByTheSexy, even ''he'' [[GotMeDoingIt has to remind himself]].
* Apparently, Mel Brooks ''really'' liked having fun with this one. Reversed in ''Film/TheProducers'': "Jacques Lepideux... Jacques Lepideux... Jack Lapidus?"
* Hedley Lamarr from ''Film/BlazingSaddles''. People tend to leave off the l in his first name. At the end, when someone actually ''is'' talking about Hedy Lamarr, he still corrects them.
* Honey Horneé in ''Film/WaynesWorld 2''. It's pronounced "hor-NAY", but Garth calls her "Ms. Horny" even after hearing it pronounced correctly.
* In ''The Comedy of Terrors'', the central characters had several exchanges along these lines:
-->'''Gillie:''' Mr. Tremble...\\
'''Trumbull:''' ''Trumbull!''\\
'''Gillie:''' But that's what I said.
* In ''Film/CorkyRomano'', the title character's FBI alias changes his surname to "Pissant" after a bumbling hacker misinterprets an insult as the answer to his question of what the name should be. It then becomes a running gag as Corky tries to convince people that it's pronounced "Pis-AHNT... it's y'know... French."
* ''Film/JoeDirt'':
-->'''Joe Dirt:''' Comin' to work. Joe Deertay.\\
'''KXLA Security Guard:''' Don't try and church it up son. Don't you mean Joe Dirt?
* ''Film/TheAbominableDrPhibes'': "How do you pronounces this name? Phy-bees?"
* ''Film/SchoolOfRock'': "Actually, it's 'Schnay-blay'."
* In the comedic slasher film ''Film/SantasSlay'', when checking in at an airport, the attendant reads Santa's name as, "Mr. Satan", to which she is corrected. "Actually, it's pronounced Shuh-TAN."
* {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''Film/LAStory'': Harris (Creator/SteveMartin) and his friends agree to meet at a trendy new restaurant whose name is pronounced "leed-YO", but when the scene shifts there, we see that it's actually spelled "L'Idiot", and that ''is'' the correct pronunciation in French.
* ''Film/TheLastAirbender''. Director Creator/MNightShyamalan instructed actors to pronounce several words ("Ong", "Ahvatar", "Soaka", "Ee-roh") as though their written forms followed transliteration conventions for Asian languages, rather than being intended to best approximate their actual pronunciation with conventional English spelling. Except "avatar" has long been an English word, and one can probably assume that the original creators of the animated series didn't have the voice actors incorrectly pronounce ''names they made up.''
* In ''Film/MyReputation'', Jess' friend, Ginna, pronounces her name with a soft g, like Jenna.
* In ''The Comebacks'', George Johnson insists his name is pronounced "Jorge Juanson" in a feeble attempt to accentuate his Latin heritage.
* ''Film/TheSpecials'': Minute Man is constantly correcting people that it's "[[BerserkButton My-noot Man!]] Do I look like a soldier from the Revolutionary War? I don't think so! Am I wearing a three-cornered hat? No! I turn small. Think!"
* ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum: Battle of the Smithsonian'' has a security guard named Brandon who insists his name is pronounced "Brundon" despite being spelled with an A.
* ''Film/AChristmasStory'': "Fra-gee-lay...that must be Italian." "Uh, I think that says 'fragile'." Even funnier as the Italians wouldn't even pronounce it like that.
* ''Film/TheRef'' makes a RunningGag out of the Chasseur family's last name, which is often pronounced by others as "CHESS-er".
--> "It's pronounced chas-OOHR! It's 18th century French Huguenot!"
* ''Film/TrueGrit'': La Boeuf insists his last name is pronounced "La Beef", though that wouldn't be the French pronunciation.
* In the French movie ''Mesrine: L'ennemi Public n°1'', which is about the life and death of the famous French '70s gangster Jacques Mesrine, the title character is often annoyed that the media pronounce the s in his name. It's pronounced MEH-rine, (insert French curse word of choice)!
* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'':
** "It is pronounced [[JustForFun/{{Egregious}} 'eh-GREE-gius.']]"
** There's also the argument between [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Pintel and Ragetti]] over how to pronounce "Kraken". Settled with "It's a mythical creature, I can calls it what I likes."
* ''Film/FreedomWriters'':
-->'''Eva:''' It's ''"ay-vuh"''. Not ''"ee-vuh"''.
* In ''Film/TheThirdMan'', Dr. Winkle has to keep reminding Martins that his name is actually pronounced 'Vinkle'. Of course, Martins seems prone to these AccidentalMisnaming moments as he keeps referring to Major Calloway as 'Callahan'.
-->'''Major Calloway:''' That's Call''oway'', not "Callahan." I'm English, not Irish.
* In ''Film/GoldenEye'', we have [[UsefulNotes/RussianLanguage this helpful exchange]]...
-->'''Jack Wade:''' Who is that?\\
'''Bond:''' Natalya Siminova.\\
'''Natalya Simonova:''' Natalya Sim-''yon''-ova[[note]]Tragically (and fitting this trope to a T) her actual name is pronounced "'''See'''-munova" with a strong accent on the first syllable. What she pronounces is an entirely different surname, "Sem'''yon'''ova"/Семёнова, from first name "Sem'''yon'''" (whereas Simonova/Симонова is from an antique first name "'''See'''mon").[[/note]].
-->'''Bond:''' [[BlatantLies Russian Minister of Transportation]].
* Gnorm of ''Film/AGnomeNamedGnorm'' ([[MarketBasedTitle a.k.a.]] ''Upworld'') pronounces his name (and that of his race) with a hard G. He meets a human detective who corrects him, claiming that the G is silent. Gnorm first replies "No it's g-not!" but later doesn't object to being called "Norm".
* In ''Film/GetSmart'', a UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush {{Expy}} President (played by Creator/JamesCaan) pronounces "nuclear" as "nucular". DaChief, obviously already on edge, blows up and corrects him (as Creator/AnneHathaway writes in big huge capital letters on a piece of paper using a purple crayon, giving the {{Expy}} President a hard time not to see DaChief before he explodes. The message written by a female agent? "DON'T DO IT, MR. PRESIDENT, OR YOU'LL DIE!")
* In ''Film/LemonadeJoe'', Joe's name LOOKS like the English name "Joe" when written but it's in fact pronounced as if it was written in Czech -- Yoe with "e" as in "bed".
* In ''Film/CrazyStupidLove'', several characters pronounce David Lindhagen's last name as "Lind-hey-gen", even after he corrects them that it is pronounced "Lind-hah-gen".
* In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', when Bruce and Selina (aka Catwoman) (portrayed by Creator/AnneHathaway) are dancing at the masquerade ball:
-->'''Selina:''' His wife's in Ibiza. She left her diamonds behind, though. Worried they might get stolen.\\
'''Bruce:''' Mm. It's pronounced "I-beeth-a". You wouldn't want any of these folks realizing you're a crook, not a social climber.
* In ''Film/FinalJustice'', nobody Geronimo meets in Malta ever says his name correctly: It's "HAY-ronnie-mo" rather than "jurr-ONNA-mo." After a certain point he gives up on correcting people.
* In ''Film/MuppetsMostWanted'', the villain's surname is ''[[ObviouslyEvil Badguy]]'', but he insists on having it pronounced ''bædgee'' on account of being French.
* In ''Film/TheBitterTeaOfGeneralYen'', Megan Davis' first name is pronounced in the old Irish way as mee-GHAN, as opposed to the alternative pronunciation, MEG-en.
* ''Film/Anchorman2TheLegendContinues'': After antagonist Jack Lime loses a bet with Ron and is forced to change his name to "Jack Lame", he tries to get around the "embarrassing punishment" part pronouncing it as Lah-mey, which annoys Ron.
** There is also a character called Chani Lastnamé, pronounced "Last-NAR-may".
* In ''Film/{{Kopps}}'', Benny's neighbor Mike insists that "Fock" sounds better than "Fuck".
* In ''Film/ItsAVeryMerryMuppetChristmasMovie'' the French ringmaster the Muppets hire for a fundraising show called Cirque Du Sol Lame insists it's pronounced "La-meh", being French and all. Later on in the film when Daniel comes down to Kermit he insists he'd rather go by "Danny L."
* ''Film/TheWomanInRed'': Teddy mispronounces Music/DavidBowie's name as "Booie."
* ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial'' somehow mispronounces the name of the Wookiee homeworld (Kashyyyk, pronouned pretty much as spelled) as "''Kazook''".
* ''{{Film/Vamps}}'': Dr. Van Helsing insists the name "Tepes" is pronounced "Tee-pes", unlike the pronunciation of "Tepish" which everyone else uses.
[[/folder]]

* A joke on a greeting card had UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush ask a waitress for a [[ThatCameOutWrong "quickie."]] After the waitress storms off in disgust, Cheney tells him it's pronounced "quiche" ("keesh").

* Children's author, Creator/LouisSachar, pronounces his surname as "Sacker" with a "K" sound. The beginning of the second ''Literature/WaysideSchool'' book gives the correct pronunciation as well as how teachers all over the country get it wrong.

** The founding family of the UFC is the Gracies, who have had a tradition of sons with names starting with R, which is pronounced like an H at the beginning of the word. Royce Gracie, the first UFC tournament winner, is properly addressed as "Hoyce".
** Former UFC featherweight champ José Aldo's first name is pronounced with a hard J ("Joe-zay"), not a soft J like the Spanish version of the name ("Hoe-zay"). During Aldo's feud with Conor [=McGregor=], [=McGregor=] repeatedly and intentionally mispronounced it.

* Creator/NeilGaiman has said in the past that he's heard both "GUY-mun" and "GAY-mun" for his last name. His phonetic rendering is "GAME'N".

** [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments "Dear Ted; It's 'encycloPEdia,' not 'encycloPAYdia.' Why must you always pronounce things in the most pretentious way possible? It makes you sound douchey, and that's 'douchey', not 'douCHAY.'"]]

* ''Series/WhodunnitUK'': "Death at the Top" features a suspect named Ian Cockburn, pronounced 'Coburn'. Host Creator/JonPertwee gets some humour out of panellist Patrick Mower prounces the surname as it is spelled.

* ''Deries/WhodunnitUK'': "Death at the Top" features a suspect named Ian Cockburn, pronounced 'Coburn'. Host Creator/JonPertwee gets some humour out of panellist Patrick Mower prounces the surname as it is spelled.

* ''Deries/WhodunnitUk'': "Death at the Top" features a suspect named Ian Cockburn, pronounced 'Coburn'. Host Creator/JonPertwee gets some humour out of panellist Patrick Mower prounces the surname as it is spelled.

* Music/LynyrdSkynyrd has an album called "Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd"
** Justified, as the band's name is based on that of a real person named Leonard Skinner.

* Syuri, former Karate Girl of the New Generation Wrestling/{{HUSTLE}} Army, is always called "Shuri" by the announcers, even though she spells it Syuri on her own Facebook page. ({{crowd chant}}s are more often the way it is spelled too)

* Guy de Maupassant's novel ''Literature/BelAmi'' has a French variation on this that involves more of a spelling change than a pronunciation change. The ruthlessly ambitious newspaper writer protagonist Georges Duroy comes from peasant ancestry and moved to Paris from a provincial Normandy town called Canteleu. After marrying into wealth, he and his wife invent a change to his name that will provide him with greater social position. First, Duroy is changed to Du Roy in order to give him a fake noble surname. Then, Canteleu is changed to the nicer sounding Cantel and added to that, changing the simple George Duroy to the high status Georges du Roy de Cantel. In fact, from that point onward on the novel, Duroy's name is always spelled as Du Roy, and he also uses the name change for some AstroTurf journalism, authoring articles as D. de Cantel, Duroy, and du Roy, all presented as being ostensibly different people.

** That might be the case in the UK, but "Air-un" is still the standard pronunciation of the name in the States. Star [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]] quarterback Aaron Rodgers, rising [[UsefulNotes/CurrentPeopleToKnowInMLB New York Yankees]] star Aaron Judge, and for a last-name example, [[UsefulNotes/HistoricalPeopleToKnowInMLB Baseball Hall of Famer]] Hank Aaron? All "Air-un".